Starfox NG: From Academy to Empire
by TurboJ
Summary: The Starfox team disbanded twelve years ago. What happens when their children meet at the Cornerian Flight Academy..?
1. Like Father, Like Son

This story was co-written with my sister. She removed it a while back. She said I could re-upload it. Enjoy!

* * *

"But Daddy, I don't want to go to a flight academy. I wanna be an artist!"

Junior McCloud's glinting green eyes looked desperately at his father; who had been literally shoving the small yellow form into his face all morning. Fox sighed.

"Junior, this is what you were born to do. I was the leader of a great flight team, and your grandfather was the leader of the very same great flight team. I don't want to force you into anything, son, but this is your destiny"

"If it's my destiny, why don't I want to do it?"

All Fox could do was shake his head; no matter how much he pleaded, his son remained obstinate in his decision. He placed the form on the carefully organised desk and left. Junior turned around as his door closed.

"I want to be an artist, not a pilot. I don't know how to pilot, but I'm great at artisting. Daddy knows that"

Krystal looked up to see her husband looking very disappointed. He sat on the sofa beside her and sighed again.

"Did Junior say no again?"

"Yeah. At least he wasn't shouting this time"

"Fox, you know we can't make him do it. He has great talent as an artist, let him do that. He may look like you in every way, but he doesn't want to be your clone"

Junior did indeed look identical to his father. He had his green eyes, his fur colour, and the little light bits in all the same places; well, except for a small heart-like marking on his back. As homage to his mother, he wore a tiny green jewel, one of the ones she used to wear around her head, as a necklace.

"I know, Krystal, but it's always been my dream…"

"But not his. Don't bother anymore; let him lead his own life. He may be ten years old, but he knows what he wants"

Just outside the living room door, out in the hallway, was Junior. He was going to politely ask his father to remove the yellow form from the desk, as touching it was too close to filling it in for his liking. The door was only slightly open. Curious, Junior put a pointed ear to it.

"I thought he'd love to fly, Krystal. His courage, his brains, his sense of adventure. He'd love it"

Dad had never openly complimented him like that before, this wasn't right at all. He pressed closer to the door, pulling back on the handle slightly in case it opened on its own.

"I know he wants to be an artist, but what would bar his way? Remember all of the things we saw in our time? The fields and waterfalls on Fortuna, the shining cityscapes of central Corneria…"

"We live in Corneria"

"And yet he's never even seen central city. This is what I'm talking about; he needs to get outside and do things"

"He gets outside. He can sit in the yard and sketch leaves and plants and things all day long"

"No, not outside the house, outside the city, into the world. Don't you remember Fichina? That was a real adventure. And Sauria, that was gorgeous _and_ exciting! Sometimes I miss being down in the fleet…"

"Perhaps" Krystal looked up fromher magazine "He doesn't want to be in the fleet because he'd be totally under your thumb"

"He doesn't even know that!"

"**What?!**" Krystal dropped the magazine in shock "He's ten years old and he has no idea what his father does for a living? You're the _general_! You're one of the most important people on the _planet_! And Junior doesn't know?

But Junior did know, well, now. He gasped, but quietly. The _general_?! No wonder he wanted him to join the fleet, he could keep an eye on him all day!

"I always thought he'd want to go out and see the galaxy, if not even for artistic purposes. Imagine what he could do, he might find Sauria one day, he'd love it there"

Sauria…hadn't his father shown him pictures of that place once? Junior watched in silence as Fox took the second door from the living room to the kitchen, Krystal followed and Junior crept quietly into the room.

That old picture on the fireplace! Why had he never asked? He picked it up and examined the scenery carefully; clear skies, lots of grass and rivers, loads of trees, and all of the flowers! It looked incredible. That was it! Maybe being a pilot wouldn't hurt his artistic goals! Junior carefully placed the picture back onto the fireplace and hurried to his room. There was the little yellow form, sat alone on his desk with only his Action Dude fountain pen for company. He sat at the desk and began filling in the boxes.

"Name: Junior Alexander McCloud. Age: ten. General Academic Performance - I think that's my grades: Pretty good"

After a while, lots of Tippex and a nearly empty Action Dude fountain pen, Junior was finished. The young cub slipped the form into an envelope, addressed it to the academy and applied a stamp. He crept downstairs and to the mailbox just outside. If Fox hadn't been moping over a cup of coffee, he probably would've had a terrible shock…


	2. Ruffled Feathers

Jet Lombardi hung from his makeshift perch, sulking. He was waiting for his father to come home from work, and was incredibly bored. He usually hung from the metal bar in his cupboard when he was bored. The dark blue-feathered bird looked around his black, messy bedroom; his days in it could be numbered. As he swung to and fro, he shut his eyes and began to count.

"One-I get in, two-I don't, three-I get in, four-I don't, five-I get in, six-I don't-"

"Jet?"

Oh no, his father was home on one of the worst possible numbers! His confidence slightly shaken, Jet gave a mumble of approval to the door. His brighter blue father, Falco, entered. He was dragging a suitcase behind him.

"Hey Jet, how's it going?"

"Why do you have a suitcase, Dad?" Jet's hopes were high, but he kept his slightly bored expression.

"Well Jet, what does Angus Spacerunner do all day?" Falco grinned, looking at one of his son's _Sky Battles _posters. Jet loved spaceships, explosions and violence of all kinds.

"He flies around in the lost depths of space and blows things up"

"That's right. And what do you think Jet Lombardi will soon be doing all day?"

"Um…flying around in the lost depths of space and blowing things up?"

Jet felt like screaming for joy as his father smirked and nodded. He just fell off his perch instead.

"Oh yeah! I'm gonna blow stuff up, like you always did!"

"You'll learn basic flight controls, then combat"

"But I wanna blow stuff up now!"

Falco laughed a little. His son was more eager to kill things than explore. Then again, Falco himself had been the same way, but he had still hesitated before making his first kill.

"You'll be pretty scared when the time to make your first kill finally arrives, son. I was, conscience can be more deadly than any fleet."

Jet was now up on his feet, bouncing around the room and kicking his science textbook across the floor. He had always wanted to drop out of school, he never did anything anyway. Aside from doodling underneath the desks, that is.

"Besides, the standards would have to be pretty low if they started teaching combat from day one"

"The standards are down anyway, dad. They accepted me after I put 'absolutely terrible' in the box about my grades on the application form"

Falco smiled "You'd better start packing, and don't wreck that text book, it could be useful"

"For target practice? I'd rather use my actual science teacher"

"Heh, what kind of father am I?"

"The best! You teach me all those amazing words; like that one you said when you dropped that toolkit on your foot"

"Only use that one in dire emergencies"

"Why? What does it mean?"

"Not until you're eighteen, remember?"

Falco shook his head and headed to the door "Start packing, you don't have long"

"It'll be a piece of cake!" Jet laughed and began to pile everything that wasn't a schoolbook into the case. Falco went into the kitchen and took out a box of biscuits, grinning as he heard his son say an incredibly rude word about the object he'd just accidentally kicked.

He could only blame himself for Jet's foul language; it seemed that every Lombardi had a vocabulary more colourful than a magical girl anime cartoon. Besides, he didn't have a mother around to keep him occupied. The divorce nine years ago had been very messy, and because Jet was only a year old when it happened, he didn't know his mother at all. Falco was starting to forget her too, and was glad of it. A few times, Jet had asked his father about her, he always ended up using more 'words' than he should've. Jet looked mostly like his father, which helped him to forget; the only trace of his mother was his darkened shade. He even had a few streaks of black feathers.

"Oooh, ginger snaps."

Falco looked over at the door; Jet had stuffed pretty much everything he owned into the case. It was less than Falco had expected, looking at the state of the boy's bedroom. Then again, most of the horrendous mess was probably the remnants of schoolbooks. Jet was right about his grades, he just wasn't a very academic person. He was more of a violence-driven child.

"Dad" Jet sat on his father's lap and took a biscuit "Tell me again about the times you used to fly around and kill things"

"The Starfox years? Oh yeah, they were the best. Take another biscuit, this could get long. But eat it fast now, some of these stories may make you lose your appetite…"


	3. A Girl With A Dream

"You're the best daddy in the whole wide world!"

Lily Toad clung to Slippy, her precious daddy and giggled, batting her eyelashes. She thought no end of him; he was a mechanic, a space pilot, and totally devoted to her. It was nice to be adored. She stretched out a blue arm and began to play with her dad's hat. She liked that hat.

She liked everything about her daddy, and wanted to be just like him. But there was one way that she was going to be like him that she had kept totally secret. Lily loved secrets of every kind, except nasty secrets. Those were…nasty.

"Aaw, you'll be way more accomplished than your old dad. You're going to be a dancer, you said. I can imagine you as a dancer, your blonde curls flying around, dancing around in your little pink dresses, pretty much everything you do now"

Lily went slightly pale at the mention of her future, she had indeed told her father that she wanted to be a dancer, but that was because she feared what he would do if she said what she really planned to do. She definitely hated lying; it was her least favourite thing in the world, next to bugs, bad hair days and colds.

Her favourite thing was Daddy. So lying to Daddy was an awful feeling.

"Daddy, can I go check the mailbox?" She twinkled

"It's seven in the morning!" Slippy laughed

"Please, Daddy, let me check. I like talking to Mr Mailman"

"Well…you seem to be out at the mailbox as early as six some days, whatever you're waiting for must be good, ok, you can check."

"Yay! Thanks so much Daddy!" Lily gave her father one last hug before skipping and leaping outside. It was no surprise that she had claimed to want to dance, for she was graceful and light on her feet.

She brushed off her favourite mail-waiting rock and sat, waiting eagerly for Mr Mailman. As the old badger wandered down the street, whistling, Lily felt like squealing.

"Hi Mr Mailman!"

"Hey Lily, up at ridiculous-AM again today?" He smiled "Well, I have a letter for you. I can see a certain little crest through the envelope; does your daddy know what you did?"

"Not yet…"

"Oh well, he'll be so proud when he sees it. Speaking of your daddy, these are for him. Don't open them now"

"OK, bye Mailman"

"Bye Lily, and good luck!"

As the Mailman went whistling away down the street, Lily was desperately containing her excitement as she handed her father his letters and began to open her own.

"Bills" he sighed.

"Is that your old friend, Bill?"

"Nah, these are just regular bills"

Lily tore open the envelope and read the letter quickly, there were only four words she was waiting to see, and the only four words she actually saw, at the rate she was going.

'_You have been accepted'_

"Daddy! Daddy, look at this! Look!"

Slippy took the letter from his leaping daughter. As his eyes crossed the familiar crest and the four special words, there was no denying what Lily had done.

"You applied for the Cornerian Flight Academy in secret?"

"Yes Daddy. I didn't think you'd let me if I told you, because I'd go into the fleet. But I'll be OK; I'm gonna be just like you, Daddy! I'm going to fly around the universe and have adventures!"

Slippy looked at his daughter long and hard. She didn't seem the fighting type; she couldn't even swat a fly if it was annoying her. But to think that after all those weeks in waiting, she had received the chance to fulfil her life's dream. To be... like him.

"Well, Lily…This is a pretty big thing. I'm so proud of you, going to learn to fly. But remember that the fleet is a dangerous place to be, you could end up in war time"

"Daddy, in war time, nowhere is safe. At least in the fleet you can defend yourself"

Slippy smiled at her, she was going, she was definitely going. It was what she wanted to do.

"Come on, Lily; let's start packing your case. Bubbles and Puddles can help too" Lily giggled at the thought of the baby twins trying to pack a suitcase. "Your mother will be so shocked when she reads this, let's give it to her now"


	4. A Brief History Lesson

"Why do I have to stay with Grandpa Peppy?"

Peter Hare looked sadly up at his mother, who was ruffling his hair. They were stood outside a large house and Peter had his small overnight bag on his back.

"I need to talk with some friends tonight. Their sons all went off to the flight academy too, many years ago. I need to talk to them so I know what the rules are for contacting you…" Lucy Hare, Peter's mother, was trying not to cry. She didn't want her only son to be going to the academy at all, but he'd been approved and there was nothing she could do about it. "Besides, Grandpa Peppy loved spacecraft, he flew them too, he's the colonel, remember? He was in the fleet a very long time ago. Perhaps the two of you can talk mechanics all night." She wiped her eyes and gave Peter one last hug. "If anything happens, my cell phone number is in your bag, ok?"

"Yes Mommy"

"Good. Now, have a nice time with Grandpa Peppy tonight. Goodbye sweetie"

"Bye Mom"

Lucy disappeared and Peter opened the door. He had never been to his grandfather's house before, and boy, was he surprised. The front room was full of old models of spacecraft. The walls were adorned with technical blueprints and photographs, including one that caught Peter's keen blue eye.

It was a very old photo, for the rabbit in it was no older than thirty years old, he was in a very old looking uniform and was stood next to a Cornerian fighter. Which also happened to look very old, but powerful.

"Grandpa?"

"You called, sprout?"

Peter gasped; an old rabbit had suddenly appeared next to him. He looked very similar to the rabbit in the photograph.

"Yup, I flew one of those old ships. I flew a lot of ships in my time. Back in my glory days I did more blowing up than flying. Those were the good days, before I retired"

"Did you fly this?" Peter picked up a small model from the bookshelf near him. The bookshelf was covered in models and huge books about aircraft.

"Why yes I did. That was one of my favourite ships, the arwing"

"It has great G-diffusers, Grandpa. Or is that just the model? Some models are really bad quality, but this one is strikingly accurate looking. Even the controls in the cockpit are to perfect scale!" Peter began to do what he was famous for in his neighbourhood: babbling on about spaceships. As he went on and on, Peppy chuckled, impressed.

"I never told you about the time I was in a flight team, did I? My years were longer than anyone else's, you know. The team was called Starfox." He walked over to his chair. Peter sat on the floor in front of him; he was interested already. "Originally we were a small group of friends. There was me, Pigma Dengar, and James McCloud. We did the occasional mission for the Cornerian forces, mainly when their troops were in over their heads. James was a brilliant pilot. Brave too, and very open and friendly to us - it was only natural that he was our leader. But someone on the team wasn't being so open"

"Pigma?" Peter opened his bag and began to nibble on a sandwich, clutching a bottle of apple juice tightly.

"That's right. Years before he was an assistant for a scientist called Andross. He was a madman who nearly destroyed the city with his experiements. After Andross was tried and exiled, Pigma trained himself as a pilot; that's where we met him. What we didn't know was that he was still contacting Andross, sending him top secret military plans and other information. One day, we were sent after Andross, who had been continuing his experiments on the planet Venom. Pigma claimed he knew what to do and had inside info on Andross, so we stupidly believed him. He led us in totally complicated routes, circles, and straight into fleets of robots. When we finally reached Andross, Pigma was acting funny, then, he disappeared. We knew at once that he had betrayed us, and we fought Andross. I barely escaped with my life"

"W-w-w-what happened to James?" Peter was fearing the worst, and had almost finished his juice. He always drank a lot when he was nervous.

"…He died. James was killed in the battle and the last thing he told me before he died was to escape and tell his son, Fox, what had happened. So I did, I just made it out alive and flew back to Corneria. I had left there with my best friends, and was coming back alone. Pigma was a traitor and James was dead. When I got back to Corneria, I went to Fox's school and told the desk people that his father had died and I needed to have him out of class. Poor kid, he had no idea what was going on. One minute he was worrying about how to spell 'Technological' and the next he learned that his father had died. We were wandering around the school when I told him, in case any of the staff overheard how it happened. The sight of him after I told him..." Peppy sniffed. This happened thirty years ago, but it still haunted him.

"What then?"

"Well, there was a funeral and memorials, people asking me lots of questions, I even appeared on TV. The next thing I knew, little Fox was knocking on my door with a bag on his back, saying he wanted to be trained to be a pilot like his father. Not just to make him proud, but to take revenge. I trained him personally, as well as enrolling him in the Cornerian flight academy. He was too old, but they took him when they heard that he was related to James. He met a funny kid called Falco in that academy, and his best friend Slippy came to some of our training sessions. When they were ready they set out to Venom, but I went with them. Last time I went to Venom, someone died. If all three of them died I didn't know what I would do. But we did it. James didn't die in vain. About eight years passed before anything interesting happened to us. Fox saved a planet by himself and we helped him over transmitter. He met a nice girl there. Saved her life, y'know. He invited her to join the team and I got a chance to retire."

"Wow…"

"Didn't stop me though." The old man grinned. "I saved the general a year later even though I was too old to be flying around like that. Boy was I reckless! And I haven't even gotten onto the part when I drove the Great Fox into an energy shield and nearly died again"

"Great Fox?"

"I talk too much, don't I?" Peppy laughed. "Here, get ready for bed and you might get the inner workings of the Great Fox for a bedtime story"

Peter hurriedly got ready for bed. As he crawled under the covers after Peppy had finished drawling on about the Great Fox - which sounded incredible to Peter, no matter how dated it was - he had a question for his grandfather.

"Grandpa, I've been accepted into the Cornerian Flight Academy. Will I do what you did?"

"That depends. You could train for years and be bored witless, but with some good friends by your side, plenty of skill and an occasional lack of common sense, you could be on for the wild ride. Well, G'night sprout."


	5. Time To Go

The day the academy opened to new students was a joyous one, except for the General. That morning Junior had gone out, and hadn't come back.

He had taken most of his clothes; his art supplies (including the Action Dude pen) some photos and other random toys. It was a small bag on his back, but it had never let him down. He lived quite a distance from the academy, but insisted on running in case his parents saw him. As he scurried down the high street, Fox was getting concerned.

"Krystal, when did Junior say he was going out?"

Krystal looked up from her magazine "About three hours ago, I think"

"Did he say where he was going? Or when he was coming back?"

"No and no"

"Then why did you let him go?" Fox moaned.

"He's ten years old; he can look after himself for a few hours"

Fox just sighed and shook his head. "I have to go through the profiles of the new academy students later. First I'd better finish practising my speech for later, I'm going upstairs"

Fox needed a lot of practise; public speaking always made him nervous. As he passed Junior's room, he glanced through the open door and instantly noticed something was wrong. The wardrobe was open and many of its contents were gone, Junior's beloved art supplies were nowhere to be seen, and although he had pulled the duvet higher up, nothing could hide the absence of Marcus, Junior's blue toy fox.

"KRYSTAL!"

Fox ran back downstairs, almost falling as he went. Krystal looked shocked.

"Krystal, Junior's run off! His clothes and things are missing. He's even taken Marcus! Oh God… This is all my fault. I pushed him too hard to be a pilot and he didn't want to..."

* * *

"At least try to look respectable, Jet"

"What's the point?" Jet moaned "Nobody sees you from the shoulders down in the cockpit, and what if your ship blows up? Nobody needs to look smart blowing up!"

"Fine. But at least sort out your bed feathers. They look ridiculous"

"Speak for yourself" Jet reluctantly flattened his feathers. Falco had to admit, his feathers weren't as neat as could be either. But he wasn't going anywhere.

"Grab your case, here's your wallet. Your bus money is in this pocket here, and you can buy some candy with this. Are you sure you can make it there?"

"I'm ten, I can get there alone. Dad, will you promise not to mess with my room?"

"I promise"

"Don't mess with my confetti?"

Falco smirked. Jet had put some of his old school work into the paper shredding machine. Nothing could describe the joy on his face, 'Antisocial' he had grinned as his social studies book was being ripped to pieces.

"I promise"

"And no cleaning it?"

"I promise. It will be in the same mess as you always leave it"

"Good. Bye Dad!"

"Goodbye son" Falco laughed as his son ran to the bus stop. "_And try not to get killed!_"

* * *

Lily brushed out her golden ringlets, giggling. Her new pink suitcase was sat by the front door, and she had to look immaculate for today. She was wearing her favourite pink dress and pink bow. Slippy and Amanda stood by the case, smiling.

"I can't believe you let me go. I didn't think you'd let me"

"We only found out when you'd already been approved. It wasn't like we had any choice" Slippy smiled "But I'm proud of you, and so is you mother. And your sisters. They'll miss you."

Amanda was holding the two twins. Pink Bubbles and purple Puddles. Lily looked sadly at them.

"I'll mail you your birthday presents. They're going to be five soon, right? I wish I didn't have to miss their birthdays"

"We won't forget yours, Lily. We'd never forget. Just… just be careful. I mean, people die in the fleet"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine" Lily batted her eyelashes again. The cute act always worked. Her father sighed.

"Good luck, sweetie. If you get really unhappy, you can always come home"

Lily hugged her family and ran off into the sunshine, skipping and singing her way down the street ahead.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to do this, Peter?"

"I must, it's my destiny"

Lucy felt like crying as Peter, her only child, stood by the front door, clinging to his suitcase and fiddling with his jacket zip. Peppy had much more confidence. Then again, he always did.

"Try hard, sprout, and do your mother proud. Here"

He handed Peter a ten dollar bill. The boy's eyes widened.

"Don't spend it all at once, you hear? Now, you'd better get going. Remember, be careful and never give up without a fight" Lucy burst into tears at the thought of her son fighting a war. Peter ran down the road happily, his case trundling along behind. Lucy looked uncertainly at her father through a wave of tears.

"Can he really do this, father? Is he ready? He's only ever been as far as the store by himself"

"The store is far enough, he can see the bus stop from there. It pays to be independent, Lucy. Do you think he'll stop as soon as he reaches the store, bus station in sight, just because he's never been further? No, he will go on. Its natural instinct, he has to push himself"

"I wish I had your confidence in him, father" Lucy clung to the old man's arm "Really I do…"


	6. Induction

The crowd of ten year olds stood up as the fierce looking Alsatian strode into the hall. Some saluted in fear. He had a terrifying voice, literally barking.

"I am Lieutenant Ashford. I am your commanding force for the next four years, so you'd better get your acts together now! I have on this sheet-" The Lieutenant produced a large piece of paper "-each and every one of your names. Listen up, because they are NOT in any specific order! Your name will come and you won't know when, when I call your surname, you will answer me with 'Yes Sir'! Monroe!"

"Yes Sir!" A shaky voice called from the back of the hall. Poor girl, going first.

"Lombardi!"

"Yes Sir!" The second voice was much more confident.

"Grey!"

"Yes Sir!" Two different voices called.

"I said _surnames_ Mr Roberts! Grey!"

"Yes Sir!" Came a squeak. Lieutenant Ashford went over to one of the front rows, the boy was tiny; Junior was only in the second row but couldn't see him.

"You seem rather small for a ten year old, Mr Grey…"

The boy quivered, but stood his ground under the Lieutenant's steely glare. "Slow development Sir" Some of the people in his row giggled, 'Grey' blushed.

"Good enough. Hare!"

"Yes Sir!" A very close voice said. He could be only a few seats away, for all Junior knew.

"Toad!"

"Yes Sir!"

Junior was feeling anxious. Where was his name? He'd been accepted, he had to come sometime. The door opened suddenly and the General walked in. Fox. Fortunately Junior didn't see him and he didn't see Junior. Some of the kids began to whisper.

"I did not say you could speak! Robinson!"

"Yes Sir!"

"Collins!"

"Yes Sir!"

"Lindsay!"

"Yes Sir!"

Fox leaned against the wall, speech in hand. He was worried about Junior, and looking at all the new recruits just made him feel worse. There was one more name to be called. One more kid to stand and salute, then he could do his speech and go.

"McCloud!"

"Yes Sir!"

Fox's ears perked up. In the crowd of children was his own son, standing and saluting with a broad smile on his face. It couldn't be Junior, he wanted to be an artist, he had run away for good. To see him at the academy was totally unthinkable.

"We now have a speech from our General, Fox McCloud" The Lieutenant barked "So shut up and show some respect!"

As Fox nervously began to speak, Junior shrank back into his seat with the small hope that his father had come in after his name was called, and didn't know he was there. Fox was equally nervous, he couldn't have seen his son, not here, not Junior. He'd heard his name and seen him with his own eyes, but why would Junior come to the Academy? He tried not to stutter and stumble over his words, and when his speech was over, the group filed out of the hall. Junior hid in the centre of the crowd and ran for his life, Fox didn't see him. When the hall was finally empty and silent, Fox went over to the other military officer in the room, Commander Olav, who was ticking names off a list.

"Commander, was that really my son back there? How did he get here?"

"He was accepted, Sir, like everyone else." The penguin replied, his eyes still focused on his clipboard. "We received his application slip a week ago. I thought you of all people would know, Sir"

Fox, confused but happy, headed for home. So his son had decided to follow his steps after all…at least he was safe…

-------------------

Junior eventually found room 609. His new home. He opened the door and saw two beds; he was going to have a room mate to live with. He began to unpack his bag. Clothes in a drawer under the bed, toys in a drawer next to the bed, art supplies in the drawer below that, Marcus on the bed. He hung his bag on the end of his bed and looked around the room.

The Cornerian Army crest was everywhere. The walls, floor, curtains, bedclothes and everything else were all ranging shades of blue, but the crest was on nearly everything. The lamp had the crest on it, so did the pillows and the rug. Marcus looked very happy in the blue room, and it was time for Junior to meet his blue room mate.

Junior could only hope the boy wasn't as threatening as he looked. He was a bird, dark blue in colour and streaked with black .Even his clothes were dark; Black shirt, black jeans, black spiked choker necklace and wristbands. Junior couldn't think of anything worse than sharing a room with a bully for four years. But when he saw Junior he smiled warmly.

"Roomie? I'm Jet Lombardi"

"Junior McCloud"

"Aaah, that kid related to the General! It must be cool having the General as your dad. But it's even cooler if you have _my_ dad!" He rummaged in his large suitcase and pulled out a photograph of another bird. Taller, older, brighter blue, but the two looked remarkably similar.

"Falco Lombardi, a.k.a. My dad. Not only does he look cool, dress cool and have the coolest name ever, he was once an amazing space pilot! He's the best dad ever; he teaches me cool words and doesn't make me clean my room!"

Junior took all this in and attempted to find something to say about his own father that Jet didn't already appear to know. "No need to tell me about your dad, _everyone_ knows your dad. So Junior, why did you come to the Academy? Following your dad's steps? I am, I'm gonna fly around and kill stuff!"

"I came for more artistic purposes. I draw, you see" He showed Jet his sketchbook.

"Awesome! But if there's a war going on, don't doodle, ok?" The pair laughed, Junior liked Jet already. "My dad knew your dad, they were friends and they flew around and killed stuff together with some other people. They met here, and they shared a room. I think they were somewhere a floor below, because dad still remembers the view from their window. I'm gonna check every window in the academy until I find it. I guess the staff has a policy that all Lombardis and McClouds have to share rooms"

"Yeah…"

"Seriously, my dad may be the best ever, but yours is cool. He did a lot of cool stuff in the Starfox years"

"Starwhat?"

"Your dad's flight group. I'll tell you more about that tonight if you want, at the moment I seriously need to find that window"

"You do that" Junior smiled "I'll do some exploring of my own. Good luck with that window!"

Junior and Jet left the room, Jet knocked on the door of 610, and Junior went downstairs. The pair grinned at each other before they parted; a friendship was going to be fast. Junior eventually came across a hangar, full of the most amazing crafts he had ever seen. He made no hesitation to whip out his sketch pad, sit on the steel floor and begin to draw. He laughed quietly at the thought of his new friend knocking on everyone's doors and asking to look out of their windows. Little did he know that another friend was on their way…

----------------

Lily skipped through the halls, she had found her room and unpacked her bag, but her room mate was nowhere to be seen, so she had decided to explore. She had already found the lunchroom, and had loved the look of the sports pitch, when she found an enormous door; curiosity got the better of her. It was a big room full of big shiny ships, as she wandered in between them; she stumbled over a small furry thing in the middle of the floor.

"OUCH"

Lily looked over at the small furry thing. It was a fox, bent over a sketch pad. He looked a lot like the General.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. I was just exploring when I found this big room"

"I was exploring too, I thought I'd draw some of these ships, I like drawing. Do you want to see my sketchbook?" Asked the thing. Lily nodded and the thing began to leaf through the pages of the book. All of the ships, leaves and other random flora seemed to be real, bursting out of the page to fly or grow or whatever the other things did.

"Those are really, really good!"

"Thanks. I'm planning on drawing the view from my bedroom window soon, it's nice"

"What room are you in? I'm Lily Toad, by the way. Room 620"

"Junior McCloud, 609."

"Cool, we're just down the hall from each other! Hey, did you bring any photos with you? I brought lots, mostly of my daddy. He's the best daddy in the whole wide world, look!"

Junior looked at the smiling frogs in the pictures that Lily showed him. He suddenly began to miss his father. He flipped the pages of his sketch pad again, Lily looking over his shoulder. She gasped.

It was a picture of Fox, drawn and shaded very carefully. He'd taken days to colour in, as every strand of fur had to be just the right colour. He had a picture of his mother too.

"She's pretty…" Lily sighed "I wish I could draw like you"

"It's not that hard. You can watch if you want, I'll draw that fighter over there"

* * *

Peter pulled his case into room 620. To his surprise, the dark bird he'd been talking to on the bus was there, looking out of the window.

"Hmm…not this window either. Where is it?"

"Jet?"

"Hm? Hey, Peter! From the bus, right?"

"Yeah" the grey rabbit nodded. "What room are you in?"

"609, just along the hall from here. My room mate is pretty cool; he's the General's son"

"Who have I got?"

"Well…" Jet looked at the bed beside him. "Judging by the bows, skirts and stuffed animals all over that bed, I'm gonna hazard a guess that your roomie is a girl"

"A _girl_?!" Peter wailed "I'm scared of girls!"

"Wait until we're teenagers, she'll scare you more then. If you ever get girl problems, come to 609, we feel your pain"

Peter nodded and sat on his bed. The two boys began to chat, making use of their freedom. For the next day was training time…


	7. The First Week

The week's training had been tough. Basic aircraft control (which ended up being very funny as a green furred, blonde haired rabbit called Prudence Hartley turned out to have Vertigo), basic combat training (Jet was very enthusiastic but Peter was shaking so much he dropped the blaster on his foot), and a few intelligence quizzes to give the staff an idea of what to expect. Or, as Jet put it, to ruin everyone's day. That Saturday was the physical test. 'Physical' made Peter want to kill himself, 'Test' made Jet want to kill anybody he could get to (Junior made it a priority to keep his distance), and the two words together made everyone but Lily want to faint. They all received sports kit to their rooms, and it suddenly dawned on Peter that there were serious dilemmas to sharing a room with a girl.

"D'you mind if I change in here?" The boy asked nervously that morning, peeking his head around the door as Junior struggled with his shirt and Jet was threatening to break his shorts if they didn't start co-operating. "Since Lily's a girl, after all..." They agreed, and Lily found herself suitably alone for changing into her light blue polo top and blue pleated skirt. She smiled as she tied her hair into bunches to keep it out of her face. The girl's sports kit was _lovely_. Identical to the boy's kit except with a dark blue skirt instead of shorts, but still lovely and _totally_ different if you looked at it in a certain way. Whatever way that was.

It started with a two-kilometre run; Lily skipped around the track with ease, while Peter lagged. Jet and Junior were on a similar level, but Jet finished faster by a head, probably because a pretty looking cat with scarlet locks and bubblegum pink fur was watching him keenly. There were hurdles too, which Lily also found easy, soaring over them like a bird. But Jet, who happened to be an _actual_ bird, was having trouble.

"Gah!" he shrieked as he stumbled to his knees for the thousandth time "Maria Kennedy is _watching_ me, I can't keep falling over like this!"

"Well you seem to be doing so just fine" Peter laughed, before sprinting around the hurdle in front of him while the coach wasn't looking to make a speedy getaway from Jet, who was fuming from his latest face-plant.

Stretches, sprints, aerobics, gymnastics, finally, there was swimming. As with everything else, Lily was having the time of her life. Peter was once again displeased.

"It's not fair!" He wailed, flailing his arms about in a failed attempt to remain afloat.

"She's a _frog_! Rabbits aren't born swimmers you know!"

"Look at Prudence Hartley" Junior sighed, in another world (which Jet later pinpointed at somewhere past Fichina) "She's a great swimmer"

"You mean" teased Jet "That swimsuit looks brilliant on her-glub!" Junior growled deeply before ducking the bird beneath the water, just in time to see Lily effortlessly kicking her way along her fiftieth lap as naturally as a fish. Fins Fletcher, who was adjusting his inflatable armbands, was not impressed.

Finally, _finally_, the test was over. Everyone was tired out, except Lily who said "That was a good warm up, wasn't it?" As the boys got ready for dinner (Lily was sat in 620 alone again) Jet stared out of the window.

"Come on, Jet" Junior said, dripping so much water his mattress would soon turn into a water-bed "What's so interesting about that window?"

"Because my dad's window was either this one, or Kenneth Vaughn's up in 705"  
"You knocked on _his_ door?!" Exclaimed a startled Peter "But he's really _weird_! Him and his creepy room mate, Andy Smith, keep drawing eyes all over their window!"

"What's wrong with them?" Jet grinned "They were awesome. The eyes were bleeding and everything!" Before Jet could say anymore on the subject of the eyes, Lily opened the door.

"Aren't you guys ready yet? If you don't hurry up soon, we'll be late! Hey! Jet, why are you using my hairdryer?"

"Dry my feathers" He mumbled from behind the sudden blast of hot air. The result was his feathers looking like an afro on his _face_.

"You may want to brush those before we go to dinner" giggled Lily "The Lieutenant has an announcement to make or something. Hurry up!"

At dinner, everyone was pleased to hear what the Lieutenant had to say-or rather, shout-for once.

"Sundays" He barked "are free days. You will not do any training and will receive letters from home. Congratulations on the physical examinations over the past few hours, for every student has passed!" The hall erupted into cheers. Peter thought he was going to faint into his soup. They were allowed to go to bed early that night, and Lily found herself in silence _again_ as Peter brought his pyjamas to 609.

"Phew, that test was a nightmare!" He panted "I bet I barely passed"

"Lily got full marks; one of the older kids was talking about it. And there will be more tests where that one came from. Much more"

"Guuuys…" moaned a small heap of day clothes and bedding piled onto Junior's bed "Can we go to sleep now?"

------------------

Lily woke early on Sunday, Peter was still asleep, so she could change without any worry. Yet another pink dress, another pink bow, and another pair of cute little dancing flats. She grinned, green eyes sparkling; today was going to be fun.

In 609, however, there were less signs of life. Jet was _slightly_ awake, but not totally as he was attempting to pull a fully buttoned pyjama shirt over his head. Junior wasn't expecting any mail that morning, after all, his dad didn't even know he was there at all. He'd run away! So he decided to sleep in. Lily opened the door, after forgetting to knock, again.

"Hey guys, mail today-oh, sorry Jet" She pointed out that the shirt was still done up and waited outside the room. Junior sighed and climbed out of bed to begin hunting for his red shirt, jeans and green jacket. If Lily was to be coming in, he had no choice.

"Are you guys done yet?" Lily sounded mildly irritated by this point "Even Peter's awake!"

"We're done" Jet lied, a mischievous glint in his eye as Junior ducked behind his bed and hurriedly tried to get his shirt on before Lily came in again. Once they were all ready, they ran down to breakfast. Well, Lily ran. The boys practically fell. The only time they stopped was to look at a section of wall near a hangar door; it was covered in doodles and messages. A passing older student told them that it was the graffiti wall. The Lieutenant called it antisocial, but the General was much nicer about it and restricted that specific bit of wall for graffiti. All new students were encouraged to add a message or picture reflecting themselves.

"That one's mine up there" She smiled, pointing to a quote she'd clearly taken from a TV show. "Lots of new students have added theirs already. Why don't you guys start thinking up some ideas? The General doesn't mind us doing it, as long as we're being _creative_ and not _offensive_." Jet mumbled something offensive after that comment and decided he needed some new ideas. "The General is very nice, you know" Junior suddenly decided that getting to breakfast was a _very_ good idea and sprinted on ahead, while Jet admired a familiar bleeding eye drawn in the very center.

"…Jasmine Lindsay, letter for you. Joel Collins? Aah, there you are, these came through earlier. Sarah Darby? Hey, my sister reads this magazine too! Prudence Hartley, your mother sent cookies…"

The four of them took their seats at the breakfast table as an older boy, a badger called Rowan, was handing out the mail. Lily thought she was having deja vu, seeing a badger delivering letters. She was just about to start eating her cereal when an envelope fluttered over her head and almost landed in her bowl.

"Hey, it's a letter from my daddy!" She giggled as she read the letter from her adoring father aloud. Jet pretended to be sick until he was distracted by Rowan handing him a letter and parcel. He opened the package to find his old science textbook; his father had written a message on the inside cover.

'_Target practice, anyone?_'

Jet laughed loudly and began to read the letter. Peter got one too, it was split into two parts. One long, sad part from his mother, and a shorter message from his grandfather telling him to never give up and trust his instincts. After breakfast, they all went up to 609. On the way, they saw a peculiar scene.

"Ow! Watch it!"

"Not our fault if you're so small, Grey. Seriously, you're a little midget!"

"It's not my fault I grow slowly!"

They looked around the corner from the graffiti wall and saw three taller boys laughing around a very small boy, who was sat on the floor rubbing his knee. It looked as though he had fallen over, which wouldn't be a surprise as his scruffy grey fringe kept brushing into his eyes. But by the sound of things, the older boys had pushed him.

"Too slowly if you ask us. You don't even look 10 years old!" One of the gorillas laughed.

"He doesn't even look _9_!" Added the ferret standing in front of them - clearly their leader.

"Of course I'm ten! How would I get into the academy if I wasn't?!" 'Grey's' voice became very shaky.

"Well-"

"Leave him alone!"

Maria Kennedy ran onto the scene with one of the prefects. The three bullies ran off, leaving 'Grey' sat on the floor.

"Are you ok?" The prefect asked him. He nodded and she smiled, before running after the bullies. Maria offered her hand to pull him up.

"Thanks for getting that prefect for me"

"No problem. I'm Maria, by the way. Maria Kennedy. You're that Grey kid, right? I heard those guys talking you see. Just so you know, I think you look ten. My brother is 20 but he's smaller than that Rowan guy who was handing out the mail"

"Wow"

"You seem like a nice kid, you know we get to choose our units when we go into the fleet? Why don't we go in a unit together?"

"I'd like that, then they won't make fun of me for being small"

"You're not small. Everyone else is just big" Maria smiled and the new friends left. Lily giggled.

"That's just like how we became friends. In a snap!" She snapped her fingers and the boys all grinned before continuing on their way to 609. They were just settling down to start talking when there was a knock on the door. It opened to reveal Rowan, holding a letter.

"Junior McCloud? This didn't get to you at breakfast."


	8. Secrets, Treasures, and Memories

The door closed behind Rowan. Junior looked at the letter in his paws, his mouth agape with horror. The silence was broken by Lily twinkling.

"Ooh! This is great, Junior! You got a letter too!"

"It's not great, it's terrible!" Junior snapped when he found the ability to speak again "This is my father's handwriting! I ran away from home! He shouldn't know I'm here!"

"He's the General. He knows every student in the academy" Peter said calmly, hoping to be the voice of reason of the subject. Unfortunately Junior still complained, absolutely horrified.

"Surely he wouldn't be checking the registration list _this_ early on!" Jet shook his head and sighed, Junior was right. Peter looked worried. "He knows I'm here somehow. This is probably gonna be a letter telling me to get home, or he's gonna kill me."

"Can letters kill people?" Lily mused innocently.

"Papercuts can kill you through blood loss" grinned Jet, enjoying the mental image "And trust me, words can kill. Or at the very least be offensive enough to give you a nosebleed. Another way of death through blood loss, by the way."

"Charming…" Junior mumbled before carefully tearing the top off the envelope. The others drew in closer, leaning over his shoulders to see what the letter said. Lily resisted the urge to poke him in the face, he was concentrating so hard. Junior discarded the envelope over his shoulder (and into Peter's face, it was then thrown over _his_ shoulder out of the way). Junior's sharp green eyes scanned the letter closely, widening with each and every word in his father's neat script. He had very good penmanship and had passed this trait onto his son. Only Jet had trouble reading the letter, as he and _his_ father had no patience for frills, fancies or even basic penmanship. The pair wrote in messy block capitals and Jet wasn't used to reading anything else.

'_Dearest son,_' the letter read.

'_You may have guessed by now that I know you are in the flight academy. I saw you when your name was called by the Lieutenant. You looked so happy, standing there and saluting. I was too speechless to say a word anyway._

_I will never know what made you apply for the academy. As long as you're safe, I don't even care anymore. I saw your results for the physical test too. And your room mate. Something made me laugh about that. Try not to get him angry, I have rather a lot of experience on the receiving end!_

_Naturally, as both Cornerian General and your father, I worry about your graduation, as you will automatically be entered into the fleet. But don't worry yourself. You have four whole years of training to go. Just have fun, study hard, and make friends._

_Always remember, as a friend of mine once told me: Don't hesitate. When the time comes, just act._

_Good luck_

_Your Father_'

"Wow…" Lily sighed when she finished reading. "Nice advice. Your dad had some pretty awesome friend."

"Four years isn't all that long you know" Peter put in "We'd best make good use of the time we've got-"

"-by learning our way around. Let's explore" Junior stuffed the letter under his pillow, not wanting to discuss the subject any more. "There's a huge shiny door near the graffiti wall and I wanna know where it goes!"

After a few minutes of searching, stumbling and shouting (Jet was _slightly_ miffed at falling down the stairs right outside Maria Kennedy's room, which she shared with Prudence Hartley) they came across the wall. They groaned when they discovered that the door had a _password_.

"Oh no!" Lily wailed "What could it be?"

"Spaceship?" Junior suggested.

"Password?" Mused Jet "It's a good one, my DeviantART password, and nobody else knows it. It's a great one!" There was a moment of silence before Jet realised the gap in his logic. "…whoops"

"Not clever" Junior grinned "I'm logging in as you tonight"

"Oh, just shut up and let me handle this!" Peter snapped and stretched up to the keyboard. Only Jet was tall enough to reach it properly. "C-O-R-N-E-R-I-A" There was a bleep and a hiss before the door opened.

"Who's there?" A tired voice called down the hall. It sounded vaguely familiar to Peter, but instinct came first.

"RUN!"

They sprinted into the hangar, it was totally empty but they were running too fast to appreciate it. After what seemed like an eternity of shining silver rooms and endless stairways, the group came to a dead halt on a balcony several floors up.

"Whoa!" Lily and Peter gasped.

"Oh my God!" Added Junior.

"Holy-" Jet didn't get to finish his sentence as Junior knew too well what he would say next and stopped him. The four just stared at the enormous craft in front of them, speechless with awe. It wasn't gleaming, it was rusted in places and very dated. It wasn't small and compact like the other ships, it was a great, hulking thing. The paintwork was fading but the logo was clear. No matter how old it appeared, it was like seeing the crown jewels in a thrift store.

Peter barely managed to break the silence. "This... This is the Great Fox!"

"My parents lived in this!" Junior exclaimed.

"So did my dad!"

"And my daddy!"

"And my grandpa!"

"You called, sprout?" All four of them froze. A very old rabbit was stood right behind them, grinning and marvelling at the beauty of the old craft. "Heh, gorgeous, ain't it just? Don't look so scared, sprout. I figured you'd find this. Well, seeing as we're here, how's about a little look around?" There was a twinkle in his eye, returned by a happy twinkle in Lily's voice as she leapt up and down excitedly. Junior and Jet looked at each other grinning. Peter looked concerned.

"But grandpa, we could get into trouble!"

"I'm the _Colonel_, sprout. You won't get any trouble from anyone. And if that nutcase Lieutenant gets on your backs, I'll get him off. No idea what possessed 'em to hire him. Fox is patient with him, but not very. Speaking of Fox…" His eyes lit up as they met with Junior's green ones "…You're his son, aren't you? You've gotta be, you're like his clone or something. And that pendant around your neck could only be Krystal's. Yes…and _your_ father was best man at their wedding" He smiled, nodding at Jet "even though Krystal wasn't too fond of him. Slippy was given the offer first, him being Fox's best buddy since school. But he declined. Said he wasn't good with responsibility. Him and Amanda were great with the food though. Your parents, I presume." He patted Lily's head and turned to the Great Fox once more. His fingers danced across the keyboard beside the door. Jet watched.

"Nikita Monroe lives in 603" He commented as the surname was tapped out "Why's that the password?"

"Your father had a soft spot for a Monroe girl; we always said his left shoulder felt like a marshmallow so it was probably there. She disappeared though, and Falco met someone else."

"And divorced her two years later, I heard" Jet frowned.

"Oh yes, that was messy. Come on now, follow me!"

They all happily followed the old man into the ship. Although it had been abandoned for many years, many of the team's odds and ends were still lying around inside. Falco hadn't even bothered to clean his room.

"…He never did. So use that against him if he ever complains about yours"

"He doesn't" Jet grinned, rummaging through piles of things. Candy wrappers, videogames, old clothes…Jet was delighted to find one of Falco's old favourite 'off duty' shirts. It was black and had a skull in the dead center. He asked Peppy politely (he surprisingly knew what the word meant) if he could take it.

"Sure thing. Your father just left it here, so it ain't doing anything. You kids take what you wish, it's just lying around."

They were led all over the Great Fox, Peppy telling stories of the days they all lived there. From secrets and adventures to Fox's secret diary and having a dogfight just to decide who was going to do the grocery shopping one week. Lily found one of her dad's hats that he left behind and put it on immediately. Peter was allowed into Peppy's room and was given a stack of the Great Fox's blueprints. Junior went into Krystal's room while the others waited outside, lost in Peppy's story about Wolf O'Donnell's thirty-fifth birthday. The room was neat and organised. Posters were all over the walls and nothing was out of place. Junior reached under the bed and found a small book with a key. He stashed it in his bag and rejoined the story.

"…sorry Jet, you'll need to ask your father about the rest, if he remembers any. He did drink a heck of a lot. So did Wolf and Leon and Panther. And pretty much everyone actually. That's what made it so much fun. Aaaw, I said I wasn't gonna tell you the next part. It's one of those not-until-you're-older things. How about I tell you another story instead? Suitable for minors? Oh, here's Fox's room. Be quick, Junior"

He darted straight for the bed and reached under it, bringing out another book, this one was very thick and looked like it had been flipped through a lot. Under the bed is on obvious place to hide secrets. He put the second book in his bag also and was about to leave when something on the desk caught his eye.

A notebook. Full of beautiful sketches. So_ this_ was where he'd gotten his artistic abilities. He took it, as well as a small stencil that sat nearby. He knew he could use it one day.

"Come on, sprouts, we'd best finish up here. You done, Junior?" Junior nodded "Good. Follow me again!"

When they left the hangar, Peter hugged his grandfather goodbye and hurried to catch up with the others. They had gone to 609 to inspect their findings. They all sat on the beds and presented what they had found.

"I got my daddy's hat" Lily giggled and grinned.

"I got my dad's shirt" Jet pulled it over his head and it reached his knees. "It's so _cool_! I can't wait to grow into it!"

"I got a bunch of blueprints" Babbled Peter, almost dropping them on the floor "Look at how detailed the inner workings are! I'll be dreaming of mechanics for weeks!"

"I got my dad's photo album and mom's funny book with a key" Junior shook the book and twiddled with the key.

"Keys are made for opening stuff. Let's read"

"No!" Lily squealed "That 'funny book with a key' is probably her _diary_! You can't read that!"

"I can't?"

"No" Jet grinned at Junior, taking the book from him "You can't. I, however, can. It's called lacking morals and I can read it aloud so moral people like you can hear it anyway"

"You monster!" Lily growled. Jet was just about to put the key in the lock when the bell sounded for dinner.

"We'll read it later. I'm starved. Come on guys, we're working in stealth tomorrow, so we need to eat."

Junior put the two books under his pillow alongside the letter and followed his friends down to dinner. He questioned his morals thoroughly.

"Do I read it? Or not? Do I read it? Or not?..."

* * *

That night, Jet couldn't sleep. He turned over and saw Junior sat up under his covers, holding a torch.

"My dad read comics at night when he was sent to boarding school. And in class, actually. He was in huge trouble when he got caught. Are you doing what I think you're doing?"

"Probably. The staff have done all their checks so I won't get caught"

"I caught you, wise guy. I didn't expect the General's son to be breaking the rules. Meh, I can't sleep. Let me see"

After a while, Peter came in too. Lily was apparently talking in her sleep about cuddly pink animals and Peter couldn't take it anymore. The horrified pair let him in at once. The door opened one last time.

"OK guys, where's Peter?" She saw the group gathered around the book. "Oh no, you aren't-?!"

"We are" Jet smirked.

"That's awful! Do you have any idea how mean it is to read a girl's diary?!"

"Do you have any idea how much fun it is to reads a girl's diary when that girl is your mom?" Junior said, not taking his eyes off the book.

Lily thought for a moment. "Good point, let me see"

The four of them read through the diary. Gasping in places, laughing in others. They checked the back for doodles.

"If it's anything like my math books" Jet grinned in the darkness "It would have doodles front, back and center"

"Any math?"

"Yep. Doodles + Math book = No math and bad grades" They found doodles of Fox, there were hearts all over it.

"Aw, Cute" Lily giggled.

"Ew, gross!" Moaned the boys. They flipped around until they found where they were and continued to read on. Jet stopped them when he recognised a certain word.

"My dad says that word! He said it when he dropped a toolkit on his foot!"

"What does it mean?"

"He won't tell me until I'm eighteen…hey, I know that one too! He uses that one when he's talking about mom, and that one when he's stuck in traffic, and that one when he's talking about his boss, and _that_ one when he stubbed his toe!"

The group continued to read the entry, but soon wished they hadn't. It was nothing like the other entries; Krystal had emptied her soul into this one, and at that time her soul was full of anger, fear and distress. Junior couldn't count the number of tear stains on the page. They decided to move on to something less upsetting. Eventually Peter and Lily went back to their room and Jet went to sleep soon after. Junior found it hard to sleep, though. Had his mother really gone through all that? She had always seemed so happy with life, and to think she was living with this trauma. As he finally dozed off, Junior wished he'd listened to Lily earlier.


	9. Looking Back

'…_she's a maniac, maniac on the floor. And she's dancing like she's never danced before…_'

Yes, maniac pretty much summed up Lily that night. The boys had been planning on sitting around, eating nibbles, drinking soda, talking with the other guys for a while and going to bed. But Lily was determined to do things differently. And by 'differently' I mean 'dragging-the-boys-one-by-one-into-the-middle-of-the-dancefloor-where-everyone-could-see-them'. All those years in training had started a fire in Lily and at the graduation party she was determined to let it burn.

Junior stumbled back to the seat next to Jet, panting.

"Man, Lily's insane!"

"You bet, she'll be after me next" Jet suddenly gave Junior a knowing smirk "Hey, someone was admiring your fancy footwork from afar. Look, it's Prudence Hartley" he pointed to a familiar green furred, blonde haired rabbit who was staring straight at them. She blushed fiercely and promptly began talking to Maria Kennedy, who was stood right next to her, and began fiddling with her purple headband. She did that when she was nervous.

"What about her?" Junior shook off the pink flush across his face "She's the girl who gets cookies every week, right?"

"You should know. Remember back in second year?"

"Oh?"

* * *

_Junior sprinted down the corridor as fast as possible. If he didn't hurry, he'd be captured. If he went down, he'd be forced to hunt down his friends too. And that would be terrible. 'Just a little while to go' he thought, when he suddenly bumped into someone._

"_Aaah!"_

"_I'm sorry!"_

_Junior opened his eyes to see a small, green rabbit sprawled on the floor in front of him. Her long, straight golden hair was fanned out in all directions. The fall must've been a shock. She sat up and pushed the hair from her face to reveal a pair of sparkling violet eyes. She looked at Junior and smiled._

"_You seem in a hurry"_

"_I am. A bit of an emergency. Hey, you're Prudence Hartley, right?"_

"_Yes, I am. You're Junior McCloud. Everyone knows you. What's the emergency?"_

_At that moment, a voice yelled down the corridor from what could've been only minutes away._

"_READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!" Jet called. Junior looked panicked and Prudence realised just how urgent it was. Hey, for an eleven year old, sometimes hide-and-seek can be seriously big deal._

"_I'm gonna be hiding in our room, 609" Junior panted. Prudence was alarmed._

"_But that's so obvious! You can hide in my room if you want, 513, Maria's not there to care; she's in the medical wing __**again**__. He'd never expect you to be in a girl's room"_

"_Wow…you mean it?"_

"_Yup" She smiled, showing her brace._

"_Thanks!" Junior offered a hand to help her stand._

"_Thanks for that" Prudence began to brush off her skirt_

"_Hey, the very least I could do. I won't touch your stuff, I swear. Thanks again!"_

_Junior ran off down the corridor. Prudence just stared after him, smiling._

"_So, Junior's in 609…"_

_After the game, Jet and Junior (who had, unsurprisingly, won the game) were sat in 609 together. They were talking together when the door opened to reveal Prudence holding a box._

"_Aha! Junior, it's your partner in crime!" Jet laughed and pointed at the girl accusingly. She looked surprised._

"_Hi Prudence. What's with the box?"_

"_It's Sunday" She smiled brightly "My mother sends me cookies on Sundays. I was going to invite you back to 513 when I bumped into you earlier to give you one, but the firs thing you said to me was that you were in a rush. You told me what room you were in so I figured I'd come along. Take one, they're chocolate. Oh, you too, Jet…"_

_

* * *

_"…And then every Sunday from then on Prudence would drop by" Jet finished "And then they all lived happily ever after. Well, almost. _First_ Junior has to go over and talk to Prudence before Jet pushes him over there. Go on, she looks great tonight"

Prudence did indeed look great. With a short, off the shoulders black shirt and grey plaid skirt with knee high boots and her trademark purple head band... Yep, she looked great. Junior still refused, until a green paw with carefully painted silver fingernails rested on his shoulder. Jet looked triumphant before Lily yanked him over to the middle of the floor.

"Junior McCloud!" Prudence grinned "I like your shirt. It looks nice with your jeans. Electric blue is really your colour!"  
"Thanks, you look…uh..." Junior struggled for the right word. Eventually he went for the cheesiest ever choice. "…real nice"

"Thanks, it took me two hours to get ready." She brushed her blonde locks over her shoulder and her violet eyes glowed amethyst. "You?"

"About two minutes" He smiled sheepishly. Prudence just giggled.

"So…what unit are you planning on being in? Me and my friends are going to be Unit H. Sarah is Sarah _Darby_, but Unit D's already taken. And seeing as me and Abbie have H surnames, it was H for us. Who are you going with?"

"There will be McCloud, Lombardi, Toad and Hare. So no surname things for us"

"How about Unit B? There are no dibs on that, as far as I've heard"

"Why?"

"I don't know. You just look like a B to me."

"Well, my blood type's O…"

"Ack! No! Units N through R are cursed, I think. Maria and that little Grey kid are insisting on being Unit Q anyway. Mental" She shook her head. "Grey is his last name, you know. Only Maria knows his first name and she won't tell. He hates it. But I think Lily may find out soon. He's staring at her, look" She signalled to a familiar boy with long grey fur, some of it brushing into his eyes. Not as much as before though. Although he was considerably taller, he was still much smaller than everyone else. True to Prudence's word, he was watching Lily's every graceful twist and step as Peter was reluctantly whirled about with her.

"She's a great dancer. You are too, I saw you dancing with her…um…" It was Prudence's turn to find something to say. Then a fast, electronic song blared across the room. "…Oh hey, what do ya know, my favourite song! Come on Junior!" She giggled, giving the still tired and heavily blushing young fox no choice in the matter.

After the dance, Junior was curled up in bed, clinging to Marcus and staring at his now packed bags. It was the last night he'd ever be sleeping in that cosy blue room. Jet was in front of the mirror, taking off the shirt he's been wearing. A certain black one with a skull in the dead center.

Hey, Jet grew fast. He was obviously almost as tall as his father. And Falco, apparently, was very tall indeed.

"Dig in to the nibbles I left on my bed, Junior. I swiped them from the party. Do you think anyone will care?"

"Nah. Hey…did you hear Abbie telling everyone about tomorrow?"

"Nah, I heard from Sarah. Man, she can shout for Corneria. I can't wait. Our own ships! For real! Should I do mine black?"

"Oh no" Junior pulled the one thing from his drawer that he hadn't packed. His father's stencil.

"I have plans for this. It'll be lots of fun…"


	10. The Revival

Junior awoke early the next morning. It wasn't like he had a choice, as Jet had been awake for much longer than him and was fast getting bored, so decided to sit on the sleeping fox. It felt like someone was digging into Junior's side with a very sharp stick.

"Aaagh!"

"Oh good, you're awake" Jet laughed at Junior's alarmed tone. "We register in the fleet today! We can't afford to be late for breakfast, there are some people who are becoming specialist ground troops rather than pilots, so we may never see them again! Come on!"

"Yeah, breakfast" Junior groaned, Rubbing his side as Jet threw his green jacket, red shirt and jeans at him (Jet had decided to sleep in his clothes in the end, he was so excited) being considerate enough to not throw the shoes. "Get some meat on you, for crying out loud!"

"If Rice Crispies count as meat, then maybe. Now hurry up or I'll let Lily in"

"Don't you dare!"

Junior literally shoved on his clothes as Jet made his way over the door in exaggerated slow motion, making ticking noises. He was just about to grab the handle when Junior, finally ready, came flying across the room, knocking him over and resulting in a laughing heap in the doorway. It _was_ a strange sight for Lily to see.

Lily had made herself look immaculate as usual. Being her friends, the boys didn't notice anything different about her, what they did notice was 'Grey' staring awestruck at Lily and falling down the stairs. Lily rushed to help him while the others made their way down the stairs at walking pace, trying not to laugh when 'Grey' went bright red and ran away, leaving Lily confused.

"I like the look of him" Lily twinkled when the boys made it down the stairs "I can't believe he's going into the fleet..."

"We're all going into the fleet, come on, breakfast, I'm starving!" Jet moaned.

"You should be, you beanpole." Junior muttered.

When everyone sat down to breakfast, it was a very noisy affair. Everyone was swapping phone numbers and addresses, some were discussing what units they'd be in and some particularly forward-planners were deciding how their ships would be painted. Most, however, were talking about the party the night before.

"Look" Lily giggled, trying to be quiet "Maria Kennedy couldn't get her makeup off. Doesn't she look funny?" Jet, surprisingly, had no sarcastic remark. "What's with you? You, of all people, should be pointing this out-"

"Hey Junior, pass the milk, will you?!"

As well as being noisy, breakfast went very fast, as everyone was eager to divide into their units and get covered in paint. They were led to a huge hangar, full of identical ships, each one without a speck of paint on it.

"OK everyone, listen up! Hey, I said LISTEN! Don't make me get Lieutenant Ashford in here, I said QUIET people!"

"Rowan!" Junior beamed at the older boy, his long blonde hair now dyed jet black. "You've been in the fleet for two years! Why are you here?"

"Helping out" Rowan grinned "Now, get into your unit, Junior. As if I don't already know it." As Junior scurried off back to the others, Rowan turned to the others. "I SAID GET INTO YOUR UNITS, IT DIDN'T JUST APPLY TO ONE PERSON YOU KNOW!" Frightened fourteen year olds fled into groups. Prudence was stood smiling with her arms around her friends, Abbie and Sarah. 'Grey' was shaking nervously, Maria Kennedy and two other students looking equally scared. Prudence had told them about the curse too, but Quigley Quentin insisted on being Q anyway.

"OK, let me just look at my list here…check all the groups…" Rowan mumbled, flipping through papers on a clip board. "Got it, when I call you, tell me your unit name, and leader if you have one. Prudence Hartley, Abbie Hale and Sarah Darby!"

"Unit H, unit leader Prudence!" They all giggled.

"Jasmine Lindsay, Edward Von Fitt and Kaz and Taz Bull."

"Unit D!" The group shouted "Unit leader Jasmine!"

"Matthew Lindsay, Kenneth Vaughan, Andy Smith and Daniel Bluff!"

"Unit W!!!!!" Along with random shouts of 'Moo', 'green giant' and 'suicidal Jennifers', which echoed around the room in the most ridiculous excuses for voices Junior had ever heard. He nudged Jet.

"Did you let those guys have any sugar this morning?"

"Yes…"

"Moron" He muttered as Matthew, the only sane looking one of the group, stepped forward.

"Um, we're unit W, although Suicidal Jennifers was a hot topic of debate as a name. Unit leader is me" Jasmine smacked her forehead in despair.

"And thus he must wear the sacred hat of all that is PWNage!" A _very_ hyperactive Kenny laughed manically as he rammed an orange jester hat over Matthew's head.

"Whole bowl of Coco Shreddies?" Lily whispered in fear.

"With sugar."

"The fleet will never forgive you"

A long list of names ensued, Junior growing ever more nervous. He didn't have a unit name or leader. His friends were discussing something behind him, but it was a conversation he was clearly not a part of.

"Maria Kennedy, Quigley Quentin, Anna-Maria Porta and-"

"Unit Q!" Everyone gasped at the group, calling their name clearly and unafraid. Except for 'Grey', who was trembling silently. Maria put an arm around him and grinned.

"Our leader is my little buddy here!" 'Grey' shuddered but smiled weakly at her. He had clearly asked her to keep his name a secret and to interrupt Rowan on purpose. Everyone struggled not to laugh.

"They won't last five minutes out there" Jet smirked. "Not with him"

"Junior McCloud, Jet Lombardi, Lily Toad and Peter Hare!"

"Um…" They all hesitated. Jet saw Prudence mouthing something to Junior that the fox didn't notice.

"_B! Go with B, like I suggested!_"

"Unit B!" Jet grinned; Prudence nodded to him and smiled. "Unit leader Junior!"

"Perfect" Rowan put his clip board away "now all of you get to a ship and get yourselves-and preferably the ship too-covered in paint. Scram, people!" He said this last part with a twinkle in his eye and he left. Everyone scrambled to the ships and paint buckets. As Junior was dragged over to corner of the room, he remained nearly speechless with shock.

"Unit leader, me?"

"Duh, otherwise we'd be Star_frog_ or something. Come on, we got the purple paint, just like you said"

* * *

If breakfast was loud, then this was deafening. Groups were arguing over how to design their ships, some were going for the identical look, like Unit B. but other units, like Prudence's unit or unit W, were making theirs different except for the unit letter somewhere on the ship. Prudence was already covered in sky blue and lilac paint up to her elbows, but so far the ship appeared to be worth the mess.

Mess? Heck, she even had silver in her hair when she hadn't used it yet. Probably because Abbie and Sarah got distracted and began flinging paint at each other. Paint pays no respect to people who just happen to be in the way.

"I wish I could do mine pink…" Lily dreamed "this is nice, but pink is much nicer"

"Do it pink and we'll disband from you" Growled Jet, who was almost finished painting his G-diffusers purple.

"Meanie. Look, Sarah did hers pink and silver. And Abbie's is black and gold, how pretty! Hm, green, yellow and blue for 'Grey', peculiar combination…Aaaw! Maria's is all pink and purple and red! She's even got hearts on it! I want Maria's ship, you guys!"

"We are _not_ flying with a ship like that" Peter groaned as Daniel Bluff hurled black paint at Matthew and missed, hitting him in the back of the head. "Is the fleet as dangerous as painting the ships? We're under constant warfare here and I haven't even finished my G-diffusers!" Lily just giggled and continued commenting on the ships.

"Elliot's ship is all covered in bats…and socks? Weird. Oooh, Andrew's is covered in penguins! How sweet!"

"And bleeding eyes, how _cool_!" Jet shouted.

"Joel's has skewered apples…Prudence has painted a cookie on hers…Quigley Quentin plastered his in Qs…narcissist…Kenny Vaughan's…EEEEEEEEEEEW! Guys! Oh my _God_ that's so SICK!"

"That's original!" Jet laughed "But I doubt the fleet's gonna let him use it" Sure enough, Rowan was having a word with Kenny about it. A little bit later, he'd changed the motif.

"GROSS!" Lily wasn't too pleased with this one either.

"Now _that_ one's original. Hey Rowan! Stop holding back creativity, you downer!" Jet was now laughing so hard he had covered Peter in even _more_ paint. Junior shushed him and held his stencil just below the cockpit of the ship. He took out a red spray can and sprayed. He removed the stencil and stood back proudly. He handed the stencil to Jet who did the same, then Lily and finally Peter. They all grinned happily as they admired their handiwork: A red fox with wings.

"Guys" Junior smiled "Starfox is back in business."


	11. War!

"Hi Junior! I mean, come in Unit B. Sorry, I'm not used to this fleet business yet…"

Junior smiled as his unit gathered around him. He held the transmission device a little higher so Jet, official tallest member of the group, could see. Prudence was calling them Unit B, but among themselves, they were known as Starfox. Of course, they'd never _dream_ of telling their superiors that.

"No problem Prudence. What's wrong?"

"Well, there's been news that the Oikonny Empire troops are making trouble around the Venom area, trying to get the Bolse satellite working again. We need you and Unit D to go check it out."

"As long as it isn't Unit W we're going with, I'll leave Lylat and back!" Jet said _very_ seriously.

"OK, I've already contacted Jasmine about it and she should be in Central City any minute, so hurry. Prudence out!" The transmitter switched off and Junior pocketed it.

"Come on guys, our first mission! Last one to the ships is Lieutenant Ashford!"

Naturally, nobody wanted to be the Lieutenant, so they all sprinted to the ships and flew to Central City. Unit D were already there.

"Jasmine" Junior switched his transmitter back on and typed in Unit D's contact code.

"Junior" Jasmine nodded "If memory serves, we're headed for Bolse. We'd best go in pairs to explore the satellite as it's so big. Leaders stick together, if you don't mind."

"No problem. Ace pilots too, if you have one. We have Jet."

"Ed! We're pairing off, you're with Jet. No shooting each other, and don't let Ed start admiring himself, ok?"

Jet flew closer to the red and black craft. He could just see into the boy's cockpit and what he did see were several reflections.

"Enough mirrors, much?" Jet asked, innocently.

"Gives me a better view of everything around me. And, of course, an excellent view of myself." Ed replied, staring into his many mirrors and fixing his fur. Yeah, he's one vain dog.

"Okay, guys. Let's roll!" Jasmine shouted. The eight ships roared their engines and shot into orbit, towards the Beltino Orbital Gate. Lily had always wanted to see it up close.

"I can't believe my Grandpa designed that whole big gate all by himself!" She twinkled "Not only is he smart and brave, but not as brave as daddy, of course, he has great taste in birthday presents!"

"If you're so eager" Junior grinned, gazing up at the looming disc of light that was the Zypher Ring "I'm sure you won't mind going first."

That shut Lily up.

There was a flash and a bang as they flew through the Zypher Ring and emerged on the Bolse Satellite. The Oikonny Empire had previously attempted to rebuild this leviathan, but had been set back by the Aparoid invasion. They split into pairs and searched. But the area was abandoned. Clearly, it hadn't been touched in over a decade.

"A false alarm!" Jet seethed "Come on guys, let's tell Prudence and get back to Corneria before someone worth shooting turns up there and we miss the fun!"

"Yeah, we'd better hope nothing important is going on down there…"

* * *

Fox sat in High Command and sighed. The Lieutenant was shouting, as usual, and Colonel Peppy hadn't turned up for their meeting. He began browsing through his reports when an email alert appeared.

_New email received. Unknown sender  
_

"Unknown?" Fox mused "How can anyone know my email address? Lieutenant! I have a new email and I don't believe it's a used car ad." The Lieutenant ceased screaming at his underlings for sending everyone spam and read the email over Fox's shoulder.

_"Holder of Cornerian authority._

_Prepare for warfare._

_SS"_

"What do you think, Lieutenant?" Fox inquired.

"Junk, that's what it is." The Lieutenant replied, nonchalantly.

"I'm not so sure. Would junk email have an attachment labelled 'War Strategies'?"

The Lieutenant turned back. Indeed, there was an attachment, and it was not a virus, as Fox demonstrated with a _NorMan Antivirus_ scan. Upon opening it, Fox immediately regretted it. The details were all there. Every strategy, every ship, every squadron, even the names of the commanders were contained in the document. Along with this was the seal of authenticity: Andrew Oikonny's signature. Worst of all was the section detailing the declaration of war. The primary attack point was the Beltino Orbital Gate, and worst of all, there was the issue of a hostage...

"PEPPY!" Fox shouted and slammed his fists on the keyboard in shock. Conveniently spelling out 'ouch' on the screen. "They've taken the Colonel! And an attack?! This is not my day…" The Lieutenant stared at Fox with a strange look of disbelief. Fox then turned to him. "What are you waiting for?! Call in the fleet! Send the message to our distinguished pilots and have them pass it on! NOW!" Lieutenant Ashford sprinted to the main transmission device and began to send out the message to the 'distinguished' pilots, the news would soon reach the Colonel's grandson…but from who?...

* * *

"Unit B!" Prudence shrieked through her transmission device. Unit D had gone off to High Command after Ed received a message, but they had forgotten to tell Unit B what it was in their haste. "Come in! The Bolse trouble was a false alarm, but this isn't! Come to High Command immediately! Prudence out!"

"You heard her!" Junior called "Come on!"

When they reached High Command, they saw that whatever it was they were summoned for was _big_. It looked as though the whole fleet was there! When they landed, they hunted for Prudence in the crowd.

"Prudence?" Maria grinned to Jet, who blushed a little "She's over there, with the _experts_" They ran over to the 'experts' and saw more than a few familiar faces.

"Taz! Rowan! You're here?"

"Yup" Rowan smirked "I feel honoured. Prudence is there, by the way." He pointed in the general direction of a group of older pilots. "She, Taz and another kid are the only three new recruits regarded as distinguished pilots. We're all old people here. Is the third one someone you know? Looks much littler than he should be"

"'Grey'?!" Lily squealed at the very tiny figure, lost in a sea of taller, older pilots and hiding behind his fringe "He's an expert pilot?"

"So they say. He doesn't like to talk about it though, or much at all, in fact. He's too shy for his own good." With a last grin, Rowan disappeared to find his girlfriend, Harriet, who happened to be one of the other talented recruits Prudence was talking to.

"Prudence! What was wrong?"

"The General is going to announce it in a minute, but I'll tell you now. The Colonel-"

"SILENCE!"

The huge crowd fell silent immediately. Stood on a podium above them all was Fox, looking very stressed indeed. His fur was messed up and his face was stricken with worry.

"This is a dark, dark day for Cornerian defence. For those of you who do not know, our Colonel…" He sighed "…has been captured"

"Grandfather!" Peter wailed. Fox gave him a pitying look.

"To Venom!" Called Ed from the sea of terrified youngsters. "Charge up the Orbital Gate! Oikonny won't stand a chance against a whole fleet!"

"It's too-" Fox was interrupted by a squeal from a group of young recruits. Everyone looked up and gasped as a large group of Venomian fighters charged up their lasers and open fired on the Orbital Gate above them. Small ships zipped all over as individual operators fled. The Gate exploded, the flash lit up the sky and debris flew in all directions "-late. It would take what, three days of straight flying to get to Venom without the gate. We don't have that kind of time. We must-"

"Defend the planet!" Yelled Rowan. Fox gave him a faint smile and continued.

"-Exactly, Rowan" Rowan blushed "Deploy the whole fleet and take down the Venomian fighters! A ground troops, stick to Central City and specially the Academy! B ground troops, protect the rural areas! Elites..." A very small group of the expert recruits, including Rowan, Harriet and many of the other older soldiers, saluted. Lily was confused.

"Elites?"

"A recruit who was given specialist training in both air and ground combat, rather than basic in one and specialist in the other. Or basic in both. I plan on having extra ground training someday, then I can join them!" Prudence whispered back.

"-B sector will remain at High Command and A will go to the Academy with the A grounders to protect the students! Air sectors, defend the planet from both the Venomian fighters _and_ the debris! Scramble!"

Everyone scattered to their ships and units, ground or air. As they sprinted, they saw several units waving good bye to ground troop friends, one of whom was taking up an H-Launcher, trembling with nerves.

"I'm scared, you guys, I don't want to battle" Lily shuddered.

"Don't worry Lily" Junior replied weakly "I think I have a plan, so you won't have to…"

Fox looked out over the start of the battle. As ships raced overhead, chasing enemy fighters and flaming space debris, his heart was heavy with overwhelming guilt. His personal favourite troops were all in the front lines. He knew he shouldn't have favourites, but he couldn't help it. It was fearless, headstrong types like Rowan, and bright, witty types like Prudence, who made their way into his good books easily. And his own son… he was out there. He could be shot down. If the Academy's teaching was as good as it had been for Bill, he wouldn't be down in less than an hour…but was he ready for warfare? He couldn't be. Not when Fox wasn't even ready for it himself…

* * *

"I feel like such a quitter…"

"We'll be ok, Jet. And so will them. They have more than enough troops and we have three days to spare in our little lives" Junior smiled shakily. They were, unbeknownst to Fox, and anyone for that matter, nowhere near the battle. They were going through the asteroid belt at a _very_ slow pace indeed, Peter insisted they went slowly so they 'didn't mess up those Arwings'. It felt like half a day had gone by when they saw a familiar offensively designed ship zooming past. While Lily and Peter looked away, muttering and blushing, Jet laughed and Junior, also slightly pink, tapped in the Unit W contact code to the group radio.

"Unit W? Come in Unit W? What are you guys doing here?"

"Didn't you hear? Unit Q were chased out to Katina by a Venomian squadron about five minutes ago. They haven't sent any reports in three hours so Prudence asked us to check it out. She also, incidentally, asked us to look out for you guys" Kenny replied, appearing solemn for once in his life.

"Oh, um. Tell her we're ok, and-"

"We're going with you!" Jet rushed.

"What?"

"Maria could be down there! What if she's injured? Or-" His personal transmitter beeped. He flipped it open. "A message from…three hours ago..." He cursed himself for keeping his transmitter on silent, and opened the message. A bubblegum-pink cat with flaming scarlet hair appeared in front of him in a hologram.

"_Jet? Hey, is your Unit alright? I can't find any of mine! Quigley was shot down in two seconds, Anne-Marie was outnumbered, and there's no word from our leader. I don't know what to do, it's real creepy and lonely down here. I just-AAGH! Maria Kennedy, down and out!_" There was a sickening crash and the message ended. Jet looked white.

"We're definitely going with you."

* * *

On the surface of Katina, all was silent except for the calls of the searchers and the rush of the wind. Unit Q were nowhere in sight.

"This is hopeless" Daniel sighed, sand blowing around his ankles "We'll have to tell Prudence we couldn't find them."

"No, we'll keep searching" Commanded Matthew "Katina's a big place, they could be anywhere!"

"Not 'Grey'..." Lily's voice cracked as she held up a large, ruined piece of metal. It was blue, yellow and green.

Well, what colour you could see on it was.

"Oh no! Anyone but him!" Junior wailed.

"Poor little guy" Lily continued to stumble "He was so sweet and innocent. It looks awful. That looks like cockpit glass over there. And half a wing broken off at once. It happened to the littlest guy so fast… it could happen to any one of us…" Everyone was silent for a little while. Matthew sighed.

"You guys go wherever you were headed, we'll keep searching. Relax, Jet. Maria will be fine. She earned the title of Rock-Knees Kennedy back in the Academy, remember? She fell down the stairs three hundred and fourty seven times and was perfectly fine. She kept a chart and everything. Go on!"

They got back into their Arwings and rocketed off the planet, still solemn. They continued at their slow pace until Jet got restless again.

"We need to speed up!"

"No, after what happened to Unit Q, safety is number one priority" Peter said sternly.

"We haven't the time!" Jet launched his ship into boost mode and disappeared in a flash. "KAMIKAZE ARWIIIIIIIIIIING!"

"Jet get back here!" Junior screamed.

Jet was speeding along, blasting his way through asteroids and letting loose more bombs than he'd ever used in training. His team followed behind, yelling for him to stop. Eventually Junior managed to corner him against a particularly large asteroid that would _not_ blow up.

"Don't do that, Jet. You scared us"

"Yeah" added Peter "Use bombs wisely"

"At least we got somewhere" He smiled "we're much further now. See where we are?"

"Um…where _are_ we?" Lily was right to ask. They were totally lost. "Which direction?"

"Uh…left!" Junior shouted, they all turned left, not knowing that their journey to Venom would be long and difficult.

_And to the right.

* * *

_

"_This _ doesn't look like Venom to me" Jet sighed. They were in a huge empty space, and aside from a few asteroids floating around, they were completely alone. A large, dusty orange planet was the closest thing to civilization for thousands of miles, and even that looked completely dead.

"Let's just keep going, we'll find something eventually." Lily said, trying to keep their spirits up.

"_Eventually?_ We don't have that kind of time! My grandpa's in danger!" Peter was not in the best of moods.

"Come on guys," Junior cut in. "Getting stressed isn't going to fix anything. We just have to..."

"Can't let you do that, strangers!"


	12. Friends and Enemies

The team gasped and swivelled around. Three scarlet ships zoomed in out of nowhere straight at them. The ships were considerably bigger than the Arwings, possibly big enough to cram a second person into the cockpit. Jet also commented later that the ships were much pointier than theirs.

"You're trespassing on Star Wolf territory!" The voice that had just spoken came again. It belonged to a grey wolf who was wearing a _lot_ of makeup. Her blue eyes glinted with malice as she swerved between them "and that means we gotta take you down!"

"Missy…" A second voice moaned, a chameleon with long, straggly blonde hair and large glasses. "We have _chores_ to do!"

"And I think I left the bath running!" wailed the pilot of the final ship. This one was a black panther who looked very fearful or the wolf.

"Linda, Anthony! We need to be threatening! Uh…fire! Or something…"

"When our dads find out, me and Anthony are blaming you"

"Just fire already!"

Star Wolf were clearly no good at threatening conversation, but Missy began to fire rapidly at Junior. Linda sighed and reluctantly fired into nowhere occasionally. Surprisingly, she managed to hit Peter. She almost apologised, but Missy growled at her. Anthony did nothing and simply sat and whimpered when Jet returned fire.

"Anthony! What do you think you're doing?! Fire!"

"I'm scared…" He shuddered.

"You're _useless_, you know that? Forget you! You trespassers can't beat us, we're girls! Well...Anthony acts like one!" The panther looked very hurt "Linda, what was a nova bomb again? I wasn't listening. Ah, here we go…" She was about to launch a nova bomb when she stopped dead in her tracks. She appeared to be receiving a transmission, blushing ever more fiercely by the minute. When the transmission ended her face was redder than her lipstick. She gave her group an order to retreat, which they obeyed happily.

"I told you we'd get caught" Linda groaned.

"We'll deal with you trespassers later, we have personal business."

"_Chores_, we're only out here because you didn't want to clean your room!"

"ANTHONY!"

"Who's the whiny girl now, huh?"

The red ships turned and disappeared to whence they came, still bickering away. All four of the team sat in a confused daze. Except for Peter, who was in a daydream. That wolf was _very_ pretty…

* * *

"How long have we been out here?" Jet sighed "We're getting nowhere!"

"That little episode killed thirty minutes" Junior checked his watch "so we've been out for about a day and a half now"

"We'll never get to Venom to save Grandpa now!" Peter wailed.

"We just have to fly straight. But first we need to repair, that gang gave us plenty of damage. Let's hope we don't meet any other territorial wannabes."

The group flew onwards. The minutes seemed like hours, and when an hour finally passed Jet was getting fidgety again. But before he could complain about their slow pace, he noticed something in the distance.

"Is that a warship?"

"Model 56GXW" Peter said, once again using his extreme knowledge of all things spacecraft. "Used almost exclusively by the Cornerian forces about fifteen years ago."

"It's definitely Cornerian, even if the crests are incredibly faded." Junior piped in "Come on, they might be able to repair us!"

They all flew to the beaten up ship and docked. Lily saw a pile of coloured metal in the docking bay and squealed. It was the familiar pattern of green, yellow and blue.

"Whoever is here is the person who took down Unit Q!

"Come on, Lily. Why would they have Grey's ship?" Jet remarked.

"Steel's worth a fair price these days, Jet." Junior replied. "Probably wants to make a bit on the side..." Everybody looked solemnly at the sorry piece of steel. It looked about ready to explode; it was in such bad shape. "Keep your blasters ready..."

As he said this, a rusted crimson machine trundled over to them. Jet grabbed his blaster, but the robot didn't seem to be any threat.

"I am REDD 46, how may I be of service?" It jerked around, attempting to wave a greeting. It was so badly rusted it's formerly flexible arm just made an uncomfortable snapping sound. Then there was another sound. Soft padding, like worried footsteps. A high, fearful voice called down the dusty hall.

"REDD? Someone's here? Who is it?"

They all froze and reached for their blasters, looking down the hall waiting for this person to show himself. From behind REDD 46, a figure emerged. It was a dog. A very small dog with long grey fur that brushed into his eyes. He was clutching a yellow and green helmet that look far too big for him. They recognised the boy at once.

"'Grey'?!" They all gasped. He nodded his head shyly.

"That's me. You're those people from Unit B, aren't you? Maria was talking about you…"

"That's us. But…you're Unit Q! You were in a battle on Katina, right? Prudence said you hadn't sent any reports and thought you were all-"

"Aside from me, I think they are" He sighed "And I only just made it. That pile of scrap metal in the docking bay? I flew here in that. We didn't send any transmissions because we couldn't, you see. I made it here and met REDD, who kept me company. There's fuel and stuff on board, but my ship is far beyond repair now…"

"Um, this may seem off the subject" Junior twiddled with the pendant around his neck as he spoke "But, uh, what's your first name? We can't keep calling you 'Grey', and from what I know you never told anyone..."

"My name's Ben Grey. I never tell anyone because they all know my father and make jokes about Flowerpot men." Jet looked confused. He clearly hadn't seen the show as a child.

Ben sighed again "Maria would hit people if they laughed at me. She was really nice… Oh man, that battle was so horrible…" Tears welled in his eyes and Lily gave him a hug.

"It's ok, we'll help you, and Unit W is still looking for your Unit. I'm Lily, by the way."

"Call me Benny" Ben smiled weakly "I remember you all from the Academy. You were always good and stuff and I wasn't, so Maria was my only friend"

"You're an expert pilot" Lily kept her arms around him protectively, ignoring his blushes "And at a really young age"

"…younger than anyone knows… I'll trust you with my biggest secret; I don't think I can hide it anymore. Only REDD knows about it, I never even told Maria. I…I…I'm not fourteen…"

"What?!"

"Everyone said at the Academy I wasn't even ten. They were right. While you're all fourteen I'm only twelve. I lied to get in. It's just, back in my school everyone laughed at me for being small and pathetic and I really wanted to make my dad proud of me…"

"We won't tell a soul."

"We won't?" Junior punched Jet's arm.

"_We won't_." He said through gritted teeth. "Benny, you said there was stuff here. We're going to Venom and we need to fix up before we head out again"

"Venom?!" Benny perked up in shock "Aren't you biting off way more than you can chew with this?!"

"Yes, but we're still going. Can't you help us? Pleeease?!" Lily twinkled at him, batting her eyelashes.

"Aw, ok. REDD, where did you say the fuel cells were again?..."

* * *

Soon, all of the ships were ready to go. Lily hugged Benny tightly.

"Thank you so much, Benny. I hope another ship finds you soon!"

"I'll be alright, Lily" Benny blushed again "REDD will be with me until then. Good luck, I'll be hoping for all of you!"

"Bye Benny!"

"Bye Ben!"

He smiled and waved as they all took off. When the warship was out of sight, Lily beamed.

"Benny's so brave! Twelve and out here alone, he's nice too, and very sweet"

There was a collective 'ew' from the boys.

"What? He's cute"

"Lily…" The boys all moaned. Except Jet who was too occupied pretending to throw up. Lily just sighed.

"Boys…"

"Except _Benny_"

"Shut up, Jet!"

The four of them roared on, now hoping that nothing would stand in the way between them and Venom. But would they choose the right way even so?...


	13. Wrong Planet?

"I think we've overshot"

"Oh really? What_ever_ gives you that notion?"

Starfox was drifting in a huge empty gap of space. There was only one tiny planet nearby and it didn't look threatening at all. They were totally, completely and hopelessly lost. Again.

"Maybe we should stop off at this planet and ask directions. Look at it, how bad can it be?"

They flew down to the planet and locked their ships. Lily grinned.

"Now, remember where we parked-whoa! This planet's…beautiful!"

"We can't be anywhere near Venom" Junior was equally awestruck. The place really was beautiful. Flowers of every kind grew in abundance, grass was on near every surface and rivers flowed cheerfully through the fields. Ancient ruins peaked the cliffs high above them, where lots of strange, flying creatures made their homes. It looked similar to something Junior had seen before. Back at home.  
On the mantelpiece

"This is Sauria!" He gasped "My dad's got a photo of this place at home! Wow… I'm really here... Hold on, Dad said this place was outside the Lylat system! We've definitely overshot, guys."

"I wonder where on Sauria we are…" Peter said to no-one in particular, as he stared at the ruins above.

"Walled City" A bright, squeaky voice said from below them. Jet looked down to just below his knees and saw a dinosaur beaming at him. It was _really_ small. "I don't know you guys, who are you? Wait a minute…" He looked Junior up and down, which was difficult as he was so small. He gasped and cried "Dad, dad! It's Fox! He came back! DAD!"

A huge version of the dinosaur shrieking beneath them thumped over to them. He wasn't making such a racket on purpose; he was just the opposite of his son. He was enormous, he had several large pieces of jewellery on him, and he didn't have buck teeth.

"Fox? You've shrunk" The dinosaur grinned.

"I'm not Fox. I'm his son, Junior. I don't believe I know you"

"Son, eh? Heh, should've guessed. The name's Tricky, King Tricky. King Earthwalker and ruler of Sauria. Aw, don't look so scared there, miss. Just because I'm the old, wise, maybe not so wise, king doesn't mean you should be afraid. Fox wasn't, he wasn't scared of anything. So, Junior, seeing as Fox is your father, where did you get that pretty pendant from, eh?"

"It's my mom's. She normally wears them around her head" Junior smiled, holding the glowing green jewel a little higher. Lily had never really noticed it before and sighed dreamily as it glittered in the sunlight. "She's called Krystal. You may not have -" but Junior was interrupted when the King began laughing. The smaller dinosaur was giggling too, as if he was in on some kind of joke.

"What's so funny, Mr Dinosaur-majesty-sir?" Lily asked, as confused as all the others. Tricky finally managed to stop laughing to answer her.

"Heheh, it's just that when I was a little prince, same age as Timmy down there, Fox came to my planet and saved it from certain doom, as well as a pretty telepath girl called Krystal. Then they came back again a year later and saved us from aliens. _Together_" He winked "I said they were gonna get married someday but nooo, it wasn't a conversation for children. Nothing was going on and nothing ever would. Nooooo way. I _knew_ they'd get together, I just knew it! Hah!"

Lily giggled, she adored love stories of all kinds. Jet, however, clearly didn't as his face was an interesting shade of green. Similar to the grass beneath his feet. Suddenly Junior's transmitter beeped loudly. While Timmy was afraid of the funny beeping thing, Tricky appeared to have seen them before. Maybe Fox had used one.

"Hi Junior! I've got big news! You know I sent Unit W out to look for Unit Q on Katina?"

"Yeah?" Junior smiled at the pretty green bunny who was grinning at him over hologram.

"Well…it's kinda unfortunate for the others, but they found one. Maria's in the hospital wing of the Academy. Yeah, Joy Jennings is taking care of her, again" Jet had a hand over his heart and a look that read 'oh, thank _god_' "We haven't found any others though. Ken told me you were okay, and I'm so glad to hear you haven't had any casualties. Wait a moment…where _are_ you?!"

Junior panicked. They weren't even in their ships and if Prudence recognised what planet they were on they'd be dead! Lily wrenched the transmitter from his hand.

"_The-enemy-are-forming-numbers-and-we're-taking-refuge-on-this-planet-until-we-can-get-back-on-our-feet-with-a-plan!_" She rushed, barely able to decipher what was coming out of her own mouth. Prudence seemed to accept this excuse.

"I can believe that. Unit T were driven out to Fichina a while ago, they all came back but they were out of action because of the cold, not from battle damage! Stay safe and warm, ok? Prudence out"

"What was that about?" Tricky asked as Junior pocketed his transmitter.

"We're not actually meant to be here. We're heading to Venom - which we also shouldn't be doing - and we got lost"

"Venom, eh? Well, judging by the time of day and year…" Tricky looked up at the sky, and saw a glowing ball that _wasn't_ the sun. It was surrounded by a green gas and it didn't look at all welcoming "Venom is that way. Should only take about an hour or so to get there if you go straight. And Junior…tell your dad I said hi, ok?"

"I will, and I'll be back one day. One day when I have time and a sketchbook, I'll be back. Goodbye! And thanks for everything!" Junior called as the group began moving back to the Arwings.

"No problem, stay safe, Venom is dangerous!"

They all got back into their ships, staying true to Lily's word and remembering where they parked, and launched back into orbit. Lily beamed.

"King Tricky is very nice, and so is that story about your parents. It's so lovely, I'll always think of it when I look at Sauria"

"Lily, this is my favourite cool shirt, it was my dad's favourite cool shirt, it would _not_ be cool if I threw up on it" Jet moaned. Lily sighed, but her expression quickly changed when she saw a large craft up ahead.

"Benny's ship! Can we stop there and see him? Something might have gone wrong while we were gone! Maybe it was hijacked by Venomian troops, or REDD went crazy, or-"

"We'll go and check on _Ben,_" Junior shuddered "If you stop filling our heads with horrific mental images" This brightened Lily up considerably and she happily flew on ahead, leaving three disgusted boys behind her.

"I had to share a room with her for _four years_…" Peter moaned  


* * *

When the boys boarded the huge ship, REDD 46 greeted them. They wandered through the corridors until they heard choking. Following the sound, they discovered that Lily had already found Ben and had clearly missed him. His face was a delightful shade of purple.

"Let him go, Lily. You said you wanted to see him alive. Hey Ben, how're things?"

"OK, but I'm giving up hope of being found..."

"As soon as we're done on Venom, we'll go back to Corneria and get help for you. You don't have to worry about a thing!" Lily squealed.

"Thanks Lily" Ben grinned sheepishly "So, what are you guys doing here?"

"Lily wanted to check up on you before we headed to Venom," Smiled Junior "In case something had happened."

"You're really going to Venom? Honest and truly?"

"The Colonel's down there, and we have to try and help him. Don't look so frantic, we'll be alright. And so will Lily. We'll be out there in a flash and ready to get you out of here"

"That means a lot to me" Ben beamed "Thank you so much. Here, do you need any more fuel cells before you go? And REDD showed me a load of laser upgrades, and nova bombs, you'll definitely need those. Venom is crawling with scum. And not just the bathroom kind…"

After ten minutes and a lot of restocking, Starfox finally decided to go. Lily gave Ben a last hug before climbing into her Arwing and waving frantically. As Venom became nearer and nearer, Lily started looking worried.

"I'm scared, you guys. What if we get shot down and can't save Benny? What if nobody ever finds him?"

"Now entering Venom airspace! Don't worry about it, Lily. We'll be _fine_"


	14. Venom

There are many advantages to having a ship painted like an Arwing, but it is safe to say that flying into Venomian airspace in such ships has no advantages whatsoever. No sooner had Starfox entered the planet's atmosphere, the enemy troops had started gunning for all they were worth. Before they knew it, they were totally surrounded by a relentless barrage of laser fire.

"DO A BARREL ROLL!" Peter shrieked. But it was too late, as Lily's Arwing hurtled to the ground. Peter himself, who wasn't barrel rolling enough, it seemed, was next to go. Junior and Jet was glued at the wing; even Jet was shivering with fear.

"Jet, if anything happens to me, I want you to be team leader. OK?"

"Got it - GAAAAAH...!"

What Jet also got was an Arwing full of hot plasma. Junior was all alone, covered by about fifty ships. In desperation, he charged at them, clipping his wing on one of them, but not doing anything that might send the enemy hurtling towards the ground. Junior was racing past what little wildlife the planet had to offer at a tremendous pace, frantically trying to shake the fighters. He had never been so scared in all his life. He saw a cliff face was fast approaching, so he tried a new tactic: he quickly made a U-turn, hoping that some of them would crash. Turns out Venomian troops were smarter than they looked, and they continued to pursue him.

It looked as though all was lost. Junior was now flying back towards the others. Suddenly, it was the Venomian troops who decided to use a new tactic. Although basic laser fire was good enough for shooting down the others, this time they decided to fire nova bombs.

_At the __same time._

All went dark...

* * *

"Junior?"

"JUNIOR?!"

"Oh, this is just unbelievable, Jet! My Arwing is smashed, your Arwing is smashed, Peter's Arwing is smashed, Junior's Arwing is on _fire_, I landed on my transmitter so it's wrecked, yours was in your cockpit so it's destroyed, Peter landed on his, Junior's is in his bag unharmed but he's _unconscious _and he's got the stupid thing _LOCKED_!"

Junior opened his eyes slowly. The ground beneath them was nothing but mud and dead plants, which was all he could see at that moment. Looking up, he could see lots of metal. Junior remembered the kind of place from nightmares he'd had as a cub. As his eyes came back into focus, he saw his team-mates. Lily was leaning over him and Jet was sat some distance away with Peter wrapping a bandage round his arm.

"Are you OK? You were out for a while. We thought we lost you; Jet was going mental" Lily looked over to Jet, who did look incredibly stressed. "Do you hurt anywhere?"

"My back hurts a bit…" Mumbled Junior.

"I'm not surprised. When Jet woke up - he was first, you see - he saw you flat on your back. It must've been a nasty fall, He said they chased you higher up before shooting you down, so you went further than we did. One of them smashed his cockpit and he's covered in burns where laser fire just missed him. Peter's covered in cuts, his cockpit was smashed dead center, there was glass all over the place. You're cut too, on your face. Does that hurt?"

"Not -_ow_- really" He noticed that Lily wasn't hurt much at all, only a small cut on her arm and mud and oil on her clothes "What happened to you? Or rather, what didn't?"

"Oh, me? I was shot straight in the engine. Cut out my ship's power, made a few fancy sparks and flames, but didn't hurt me much. I was holding my transmitter, you see, I was gonna get help but when I fell I landed on it and it smashed. That's where the cut came from. Peter's was in his pocket so it got the same fate. Jet's ever so badly hurt. The both of you look awful, as though you've been in a war!"

"We _have_ been in a war, Lily" Jet struggled to stand. "Whoa, Junior, what the heck happened?! I know I've got burns but you look like what, fifty nova bombs got you at once!"

"You don't know the half of it..."

The other three pilots crawled over and hugged their friend. "I'm surprised you weren't killed! Remember at the Academy, learning about nova bombs? They said a single direct hit could kill someone, never fifty!"

"Junior" Lily looked concerned "We have to get out of here. I'm sure you'll agree. Take your bag off in case you've injured your back, then get your transmitter and tell Prudence the whole thing. We're all to blame. We can't get home by ourselves, all our ships are trashed! Then when help arrives so will a force to help save the Colonel, Peter, we can't go on like we are." Junior shuffled off his bag, biting his lip to forget the stabbing feeling in his back. He grabbed the transmitter and unlocked it "I can't believe this, stranded on Venom! We can't stay here!"

"Looks like you're gonna have to, kiddies!"

Lily squealed when a huge alligator loomed behind them and grasped Junior's collar.

"Little Cornerian wannabes stirring up trouble, eh? You're going straight to Emperor Oikonny! French, get over here and take some of these brats!"

"Hold it, Saunders! Take a look at the ships."

The alligator dragged Junior with him as he went to inspect the wreckage. A hulking monkey stood by one of them, pointing at a small spot that hadn't been burned. A fed fox with wings was prominently shining through the damage.

"Starfox... So, you're little _Starfox_ wannabes too. The emperor will be _very_ pleased to hear this."

The monkey came over and took up Lily and Peter's collars. The alligator snatched up Jet and began dragging them along behind as the pair of troops headed to a large base nearby.

"He will, and once again, Saunders, we'll be tip-top of his list" The monkey grinned. "Stop squealing, it won't help anything!" They both tightened their grip so the team could hardly breathe, let alone escape. As the base drew nearer, several guards approached them.

"More Cornerian prisoners for the emperor." The alligator sneered.

"_More_?!" Peter wailed "Grandfather!" This resulted in the monkey tightening his grip even more.

After dragging them through several metal hallways, they threw the four children into a holding cell. A dark presence lurked in the doorway behind them. The two men bowed.

"Emperor, we have more prisoners"

"Excellent work, Saunders. I always knew you'd get French involved in something useful. Aah, the perfect team, _just_ who I need!"

The figure came through the door and made Lily scream. He was a monkey; despite being incredibly thin and lanky, he had that aura that told people that if they messed with him he'd have them executed. Maybe it had something to do with his red and yellow eyes - a family trait. There was definitely something unnatural about him.

He grinned at Junior, making him almost want to scream too. "Take this one out of the cell a moment and cuff him, I need him out to star in my transmission. This _will_ be fun. Hmm..." He snatched the transmission device from Junior's hand and laughed "A transmitter, adorable! French, Saunders, go back to your air patrol. But before you go, Saunders…" He handed the alligator Junior's transmitter. "Take this and destroy it. I would, but I have my own transmitting to deal with." The men left and Oikonny began working with a large computer, like the one at High Command. While his friends sat in the cell, right up close to the door, Junior was slumped on the floor on the other side, handcuffed so tightly he thought his hands would explode. While Oikonny fiddled with the machine, Junior sighed sadly.

"I'm sorry guys, I failed. I let you all down…"

"Don't be like that" Lily smiled weakly "I'm sure someone will save us"

"Think of how big the fleet is. We're just another unit in that fleet. There are millions of pilots in the fleet, and then there's all the ground troops too! Nobody's coming guys, we're just another little unit…"

"We're not just any unit" Whispered Lily, patting Junior's shoulder comfortingly "Not to Prudence…"

Saunders was, by this point, back in the air. Junior's transmitter was tight in his grasp; he was planning on throwing it from about thirty thousand feet or so. He was about to throw it when it beeped loudly…


	15. Transmissions

"Little Daisie's OK, but she does tend to go on sometimes"

"If only! Bella and Barbie are the most irritating force on the planet! _How_ am I related to them?!"

"You're their big sister, remember? Hey, Prue! I think Sarah's got memory issues!...Prue?"

"Don't bother; she's probably on her transmitter again. What are the odds it's Unit B?"

"High. She only got through to them once though, and she's having a conversation over there. Their leader never has his transmitter on but that doesn't stop her from trying. And trying…and trying"

Unit H were resting in a field outside Central Corneria. Abbie and Sarah were busy moaning about their younger sisters while Prudence was on her transmitter, as usual. As Taz never had her transmitter on and 'Grey' had been assumed killed, Prudence was the only junior expert pilot contactable. So everyone was contacting her _all_ the time. She didn't mind. She had more news.

"Prue, you never told us, do you have a little brother or sister? Then you can join in our moan-fest!"

"What's that? Sorry, I'm talking." she called, and turned back to the transmission. "What did you say? Uuuuugh, that's _horrible_! Poor guys, did any come back? M-hm, I gotta go. I think Unit B should know about this. Prudence out!"

Abbie sighed, the black cat was easily agitated. Sarah, the yellow rabbit beside her, was much calmer. Well, less angry. She went hyper instead.

"Guys, I'm just going to contact Unit B, okay? I haven't heard from them in hours!" As Prudence sprinted off to a quieter part of the field, her friends tried not to laugh.

"She panics if she hasn't heard from them for five _minutes_, let alone five hours! Seriously, what is it with her and Unit B, Sarah?"

"I'll give you a hint. Whose room did she visit every Sunday with her cookie box?"

"Ah..."

When she found a quiet enough spot, Prudence settled down in the grass and punched in the Unit B contact code. She heard the buzz as the transmitter switched on at the other end and smiled. She didn't look at the hologram; she was pre-occupied with watching the butterflies whirling past as she spoke.

"Hi Junior, Unit B, I got some really bad news. I just heard Unit O got chased to Zoness… That wasn't pretty. Anyway, I was just - _**AAAGH!**_"

When she looked at the hologram, she nearly dropped the transmitter in horror. An alligator was smirking back at her, and Junior was nowhere in sight.

"Junior?! Where's Junior?! What did you do with Unit B?! Who are you?!"

"Leroy Saunders." He grinned evilly "Just call me a representative of the Oikonny Empire!"

"Oikonny Empire?" Prudence squeaked, all colour draining from her pretty face "_Venom?_"

"That's right, little girly, and guess where your precious unit are? Consider it a warning to those who dare cross the mighty empire; come after us, and you're dead meat. Your little friends aren't quite there yet, but if you guys try anything..."

Saunders, confident he had tortured the girl enough, hurled the little device at French's ship. It exploded on contact and the pair laughed.

Prudence's transmitter folded itself up and fell to the floor, where it remained. Prudence couldn't move or speak. She began to cry. It was all she could possibly do now…

* * *

"Where's Prue?"

"I don't know, Abbie. Maybe she's chatting with Junior. She could talk to him forever if you let her"

"She wouldn't take this long, would she?"

"Good point. You stay" Sarah stood up "I'll find her"

Upon reaching the other side of the field, Sarah came across a pile of sobbing green bunny rabbit on the floor in front of her. She pushed aside the hair of her fellow blonde bunny to see her face, but she remained hidden from sight.

"What happened?" she whispered "were Unit B…shot down?..." Prudence shook her head and more tears welled in her eyes.

"Worse" She croaked.

"Tell me, please"

"I can't!" Prudence wailed "It'll only make it all worse! I can't tell you, I mustn't, its secret!"

"You have to, come on, I won't tell"

"Alright…" Prudence whispered into Sarah's ear, stuttering and sobbing. Sarah's eyes widened until they threatened to overthrow the rest of her head.

"_Good Lord, Prudence!_" She gasped "We have to tell High Command! I know I said I wouldn't tell, but they have to know, this is an emergency!"

"But-but-but Saunders said-"

"FORGET WHAT HE SAID! This isn't any Unit; this is Unit B, headed by the General's son! _This. Won't. Slide_. We have to go to High Command and tell now! Leave Abbie there, she's fine. Come on!"

"Sarah…"

"This is our only chance! Don't you want to save the unit, _and_ the troop, that means so much to you?!" Prudence nodded and the pair scurried to Central City, leaving Abbie back in the field. They pushed past pedestrians (swearing loudly at the occasional person that bumped into them) and stumbled over paving stones until they reached High Command. Sarah pulled Prudence by the arm through corridors until they found the door to the main control room, where the General would be.

"This was a mistake, Sarah" Prudence stuttered nervously "High Command is for important people"

"This _is_ important" Sarah replied bluntly, knocking on the door. An arm around her distressed companion.

"State your business." Came a voice.

"Sarah Darby and Prudence Hartley, Cornerian fleet Unit H. We need to speak with the General; it's an urgent matter."

"Enter"

The two girls entered the enormous room; the walls and floor were metal as was most of the stuff inside. They were greeted by the Lieutenant, who was, as usual, shouting.

"What are you two doing in here?! This is High Command, you know!"

" Silence, Lieutenant! They wouldn't be here without reason." The General stood up and looked at the girls kindly. He had much nicer tones than the Lieutenant. "What on Earth's the matter? Prudence looks awful." He was more pleasant than the girls expected, but because he looked so much like Junior, Prudence began to cry into Sarah's arm.

"This is an emergency, Sir. Prudence just-"

But she didn't get to finish. There was a shout from the Commander from across the room about an incoming transmission. A familiar face appeared on the huge screen. Prudence stopped crying and screamed. Even Fox felt a shiver down his spine at the sight of what the monkey had become.

"Long time, no see, _General_ McCloud!" Oikonny laughed.

The entire room was fixated on the screen. Many of the younger personnel were frozen with fear. The Lieutenant was not one of these, and promptly turned back to Prudence and Sarah.

"_This is for staff ears only!_" he yelled "_You two are not meant to be here, so-_"

"**_LIEUTENANT, SHUT UP!!!_**" Fox was clearly at breaking point. He nearly never shouted, but he now rivalled the Lieutenant. Being thoroughly taken aback by the outburst, the Lieutenant did as he was ordered and sat down. Both girls, like Fox, had their eyes glued to the screen. "Looks like you're still the madman you always were, Oikonny. Now what do you want from me, Oikonny?" Fox growled.

"What? Oh, I don't want anything. I believe I have something that _you_ want, and if my reports are correct, _that_ little girl knows what!" He laughed his cruel, high laugh. Prudence shrank down to the floor and hiccupped back a sob. It was _not_ her day.

"I'm not falling for another bluff from you, Oikonny, not after Bolse" Fox's voice cracked when he saw Prudence's state. He couldn't kid himself Oikonny was lying if Prudence was so worked up about it.

"You don't believe me? Well fine, _this_ is what I have now!" He raised a fist to reveal...

"DAD!"

"_My son!_"

"Oh yes, oh yes! You will have to come and rescue him, if that is what you so desire! If, of course, you want to see him alive again." He threw Junior into the cell again, revealing his three other captives. Prudence cried harder when she saw them "I'm expecting you, _General_" The message ended and the screen deactivated. So did Fox. He began showing Prudence Syndrome. He lost all power to speak.

"_My son… captured on Venom… First my father, now my child. What's wrong with me…_"

He turned to the girls. Prudence's face was buried in her hands. Fox bent down to her level. "Is this what you came to tell me?" Prudence nodded "At least you tried. That's what matters"

"I've never seen her like this, General, Sir" Sarah added "She never cried like this over Unit Q or anything. Unit B, they mean a lot to her… Permission to leave, sir?"

"Permission granted, you've seen too much" Sarah nodded politely before helping her friend out of the room once more. Fox went back to his seat and sighed, shaking his head.

"Unit B means a lot to me, too…"

The Lieutenant, reeling from Fox's outburst, approached him nervously.

"Sir, what are we going to do about the hostages?"

Fox sat and thought. Then an idea hit him. A marvellous, reckless, _stupid_ idea.

_It was perfect._

"The only thing you can do when kids are in trouble"

"What's that sir?"

_**"…Call the parents!"**_

* * *

_This was the final chapter written before the story was discontinued by it's original author. Everything from this point onwards is brand new. Updates will be less frequent.  
_


	16. A Cunning Plan

"It can't be, Fox. It just can't."

"Believe me, Krystal. It's happening."

As Fox had ordered, the parents had been called, were now at High Command and had been told the bad news. Each reaction was different: Krystal was clinging onto Fox, having a hard time taking it in; Falco was pacing up and down, shouting many of his 'words'; Slippy was bawling his eyes out, as was Amanda; Lucy had taken a different approach - having a complete breakdown, curling up into a ball and rocking back and forth.

"What are we going to do Fox? What are we going to do?!" Krystal cried, who had finally given up denying.

"Well, I have an idea.."

"Tell me!"

So Fox told her. Krystal soon stopped panicking and loosened her grip on his jacket. She started grinning with excitement.

"Oh, Fox. I love it! But you you think it'll work?"

"It's better than nothing."

"What's better than nothing?" Falco inquired.

Fox told them as well. Slippy stopped crying, Lucy stopped rocking and they all started grinning. The only one who did not grin was the Lieutenant, who was within earshot.

"General, I can't believe you're even suggesting that! Why, it's practically a suicide mission!"

Fox just threw him a menacing stare. The Lieutenant promptly backed down.

"So..." Slippy started, his voice still slightly shaky. "When are we leaving?"

"Immediately. Commander Olav!" Fox called across the room. The penguin waddled over. "While I'm gone, you're in charge of all operations. If Ashford gives you any trouble, just ignore him."

"Sir, yes sir!" Olav saluted.

The group left for the hangars. None of them said a word - they knew Fox wasn't really in the mood for questions. Presently, after several flights of stairs and what seemed like a mile of corridors, they arrived at -

"No way." Falco said. "Are you seriously thinking..."

"It'll be just like old times." Fox said, calmly. "Besides, she's still air-worthy. Remember those last repairs we made before her retirement?"

Falco couldn't argue with him. They had spent several weeks making sure that everything was operational before it was retired. The only thing that hadn't been preserved was the sparkling finish, lost to a decade of dust and grime.

"Now, let's get her refueled and prepped for take off!"

* * *

Most people in the vicinity of High Command and the academy were used to seeing the hangar roofs opening up. Many of the larger battleships were stored in the hangars when there wasn't a war on. But today was different. Today, everyone who saw this roof open was absolutely shocked. There was only one ship in that hangar...

The Great Fox hovered in the air above the open roof. Fox looked down at the assembling crowd below. Many of them were too young to even know what the Great Fox was. Slowly the main engines rumbled into life, and the ancient craft took to orbit. StarFox was well and truly alive.

The bridge was certainly an active area of the ship at this point. While Slippy was starting up ROB 64 for the first time in years, everyone else was getting reacquainted with the controls. Lucy and Amanda were slightly confused by some of the dials and displays, having never been on the bridge before, but were able to understand most of them. For the others, it's like they'd never left.

"Slippy, the Hyperdrive is at full power. Can you start it?" Fox asked, sheepishly.

"Why can't you?"

"Eh, I never actually learned how."

Slippy sighed and went over to the control panel. The Hyperdrive was the last thing added to the Great Fox before the team had gone into retirement, so they didn't really know how to use it. Fox was too busy at the moment to try and remember how to operate it, anyway. He was thinking through his strategy. Although his train of thought had a rather violent derailment when the Hyperdrive kicked in and he was knocked off his feet.

* * *

The group stood in front of the monitor, staring at the various facts and figures on the screen.

"Right, the transmission was traced back to these co-ordinates." said Fox, pointing to a series of large numbers. "ROB, locate the source and give us a visual overlay."

ROB did his job, his metallic fingers dancing across the keyboard and gliding over the touch-screens. The monitor brought up a birds-eye view of Venom. In the very centre was the base.

"We'll fly in low, so as not to draw attention." Fox explained, gesturing to the screen "Once we've landed we'll storm the base with a full on assault from the west. Falco and Krystal, you two take the North side, while Slippy and I take the south."

"And what about me?" Lucy inquired.

"What about you?"

"Listen Fox, just because I'm not a member of StarFox doesn't mean I'm staying here. Yes, our children are down there, but don't forget my father is too."

Fox thought for a moment. In the whirlwind of emotion, he had forgotten about Peppy. Lucy had more to worry about than the others, and considering how much she worried about Peter's safety to begin with...

"Well, if you want to, I'm not gonna stop you." He turned to Amanda. "What do you say? Feel up for it?"

"Well..." She began "I'd like to, but at the same time... I think I'll give it a miss."

"Suit yourself."

"Alert: Distress signal detected." ROB chimed in, as the ship left hyperspace, throwing everyone else to the floor.

* * *

"Who on earth would be on a 56GXW in this part of the system?" Falco said, echoing the thoughts of the rest of the team.

"I didn't think there were any left in service..." Fox replied. "We'll have to be cautious guys. It could be a trap."

"Yeah, it could!" Slippy put in. "It could be filled with the eggs of a hideous beast that will kill us one by one!" Amanda made a mental note to never let Slippy watch that film again.

"... I mean, it could be set up by Venomian troops."

"Well, we won't know until we see for ourselves." Krystal said. "ROB, begin docking procedures."

The Great Fox slowly moved into position, before the gangway extended and made contact with the other ship. The team moved slowly into the docking bay, each with their blasters on hand. Falco heard a noise from the shadows and took aim.

"I am REDD 46, how may I be of service?"

"Wait, a REDD? Are you kidding me?! These were around when my grandpa was alive!" Fox cried in amazement.

"REDD, are they back?"

Benny came running down the corridor.

"Thank god, I've been so worr-" he started. He quickly stopped when he realised that he was face to face with the General. Too shocked and scared to come up with anything to say, he nervously saluted instead.

"Benjamin Grey, right?" Fox asked.

Benny just nodded, trembling.

"Unit Q?"

Again, Benny nodded.

"Thank goodness we've found you! We were concerned when only Miss Kennedy returned to Corneria." Benny was relieved to know that Maria was safe, but was still scared of being around the General. "Now, who are the 'they' that you mentioned? Was my son here?"

"Y-y-y-yes sir." Benny stuttered. "Do you know if he's alright?"

"Our kids have been captured." Falco said, wanting to get back to traveling as fast as possible. "We're going to rescue them, and it looks like you're coming along as well."

"Oh thank you!" Benny cried, overjoyed that he was going to be safe. "Um, if there's anything you need, this ship's got plenty of supplies."

* * *

While the others were carrying fuel, weapons and ammo out of the storage hold, Fox and Benny looked out towards the Great Fox.

"Your father is a good friend of mine." Fox said. "I was best man at his wedding. That was thirteen years ago. And you're fourteen..."

Benny gulped. The game was up.

"Oh I can't hide it from you, sir!" He wailed. "I just wanted to make my father proud! To do my part in defending Corneria! To-"

"Easy, little guy. I've known for years, and yet I never said anything."

It then dawned on Benny. Fox would've seen his application, so he would've known from day one.

"So, why didn't you say anything, sir?"

"Not sure. It could've been that I thought you'd inherit your father's skills as a pilot, and I know that's true."

"... So am I going to be in trouble?"

"Is a square round?"

Benny smiled weakly. Things were looking up. Slippy came past with a large box of cartridges.

"This is the last one Fox. We'd better get a move on if we're going to save the kids."

Fox nodded and started on back down the gangway. Benny began to follow.

"Farewell, master Grey." Came the voice of REDD.

Benny stopped and turned back. He stared at REDD; you couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor machine. REDD was at least fifty years old, and by the looks of it ten of them had been full of neglect. His paint was flaking off, his metal was rusting, his motors needed an oiling and one of his eyes had lost its friendly glow.

"General, sir? Can we please take REDD with us?"

"Any particular reason?" Fox asked, turning back towards them.

"Well, he's been such a good friend to me these past few weeks, and... I don't think I can bear to leave him behind."

Fox grinned and went back to the ageing robot. He took it by the claw and eased it down the gangway. 'Next stop: Venom' he thought.


	17. The Legacy

"Final preparations guys, we're launching in five minutes!"

The docking bay was a mess. Tools, fuel cells, ground weapons, piles of food wrappers; you name it, they were going in and out of the Arwings. Time hadn't been as soft on them as it had been on he Great Fox, and it was only an hour earlier when Fox had decided to delay the rescue operation to address the most worrying problems. Falco had also decided it was time to empty out his Arwing so it no longer resembled Jet's bedroom floor. Slippy had come up with the brilliant idea of fitting radar jammers and cloaking devices so they could fly in undetected. The jammers worked fine, but he had yet to create a cloaking device that lasted longer than twenty minutes; they had to get through the defenses faster than anyone had ever done previously.

"Launch in T-Minus two minutes" ROB announced over the transmitter.

Things began to speed up now. As the final laser rifles were placed in the storage holds, the team leaped into the Arwings and began the start-up sequence. Engines powering up, warming laser generators, communication line green...

"Good luck you guys." Fox said to his wingmates.

"If we're gonna pull off something as crazy as this, we'll need all the luck we can get." Falco replied.

Fox felt a little nervous. It seemed an impossible task to infiltrate Venom, but he wouldn't know until he tried. The others felt more or less the same, although Lucy was only nervous because she'd never flown an Arwing before.

"Five seconds." Amanda called from the bridge.

"Hold on Junior, daddy's coming." Fox whispered to himself.

"Launch all ships!"

The docking bay echoed to the sound of five screaming engines, then it all went silent as the Arwings roared off into space.

* * *

The team were surprised by the simplicity of it all. Venom's outer defenses were nothing like they had been back in the days of Andross; in fact, there weren't any defenses at all. The odd satellite floated through orbit, but it was swiftly taken out of action. As they entered the atmosphere, the Arwings disappeared as the cloaking devices came into play.

"You think maybe the additions weren't needed?" Slippy called.

"Oikonny may not be taking care of his outer defenses, but who knows what he's got on the surface?" Fox replied.

As it turned out, not a whole lot. There were a lot of missile silos and radar dishes, but the skies were mostly empty. Falco was getting a little edgy with the large number of targets.

"Come on, Fox. Just one?"

"No Falco! If we uncloak now, we may as well have flown in, guns blazing."

"That's what I wanted in the first place" Falco muttered.

Presently, the base came into view. Oikonny loved to show off his power; the base had quite possibly the largest buildings and most missile batteries this side of the planet. But as they prepared to land, Lucy found herself more focused on a small fire that had started in the bush.

"Guys, there's something down there..."

* * *

The team examined the wrecked crafts, rather shocked at the fact that this was where their children had crashed.

"I mean, look at this!" Slippy cried, "That one looks as though it took at least forty nova bombs from all directions!"

"Don't exaggerate, Slippy..." Krystal sighed, as she held tightly onto Junior's backpack. Fox climbed down from the G-Diffuser and landed on what was left of the wing. It creaked ominously.

"Well, there's no doubt about it. Model LBS2E. These are their ships."

"And they look like they've been here for years..." remarked Lucy. "Just look at the livery."

It was only then that Fox actually did notice the livery. In amongst the numerous scorch marks, holes and general damage, he could still see that the G-Diffusers were a familiar purple. Then his jaw dropped. Just below the cockpit was a small spot that hadn't been burned. There, shining prominently on the battle-scarred hulk, was a red fox with wings.

"They... They reformed Star Fox. That's why they came out here. They wanted to be like us. They wanted to... continue the legacy..."

Fox could feel a lump growing in his throat. All that about wanting to be an artist, and then Junior tries to follow in his footsteps. He hadn't felt this proud since he first saw his son saluting among the crowd of new recruits.

"Uh, Fox? I hate to interrupt your little moment, but we've got kids to save!"

Fox snapped back to his senses. "You're right Falco. There's no time to lose. Everyone grab supplies and get moving!"

He leapt off the wing, retrieved a gatling gun from his Arwing and headed off towards the base. The others did likewise and charged on ahead. It was then that Fox slowed down and looked back.

"Krystal..?"

Running back to the impact site, he found that Krystal hadn't moved. She hadn't even heard him.

"Krystal, come on! We have to..."

But then he saw it. Held in her hands was an open book. One that Junior had kept with him for many years. A fully little book with a key. And Krystal had found a certain entry. One that had brought back horrible memories. She was trembling; tears running down her cheeks; it was as though she was reliving it all again...

* * *

Author's Notes:  
**I'M SO SORRY!** I would've updated sooner, but I didn't know what to write, I wasn't as into Star Fox as I used to be, I was busy with University work, and then I just forgot about it!

I'm in a _major_ Star Fox mood at the moment (having just put the entire Adventures soundtrack on my iPod), and with little to do over summer, I figured I may as well get back to it...


End file.
